


Aftershock

by Pegasus143



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alien Cultural Differences, Alternate Universe - No Androids (Detroit: Become Human), Alternate Universe - Post-War, Alternate Universe - Voltron: Legendary Defender Fusion, Autism, Autistic Cole Anderson, Autistic Markus (Detroit: Become Human), Disabled Character, Enemies to Friends, F/F, F/M, Grief/Mourning, John and Caroline Phillips' Bad Parenting, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Multi, Near Death Experiences, Other, Trans Character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-16
Updated: 2021-03-18
Packaged: 2021-03-18 20:21:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 21,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29495715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pegasus143/pseuds/Pegasus143
Summary: After a long and terrible war, the Galra Empire has finally been defeated, leaving the universe in peace. However, this came at a cost – the death of the paladins of Voltron, the universe’s greatest hope. Ten years later, the lions of Voltron are ready to choose new paladins.Meanwhile, a group of teenagers from Earth have reason to believe that their planet’s best astronauts aren’t dead, even though it’s been ten years since their space mission disappeared.
Relationships: Cole Anderson/Damian Miller, Emma Phillips/Emily Wilson (Detroit: Become Human), Hank Anderson/Connor, Josh/Markus (Detroit: Become Human), Kara/Luther (Detroit: Become Human)
Kudos: 4
Collections: DBH AU Big Bang 2020





	1. The End is the Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> This is an idea I've been thinking about for a couple years, and finally got the motivation to write this out due to the DBH AU Big Bang! Special thanks to my artist, Rave ([Tumblr](https://starkeravingmadgirl.tumblr.com/),[Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/starkeravingmadgirl/)); my beta, Sab; and the BB mods. 
> 
> Chapter titles are borrowed episode titles from Voltron: Legendary Defender.
> 
> Also, I've made a playlist based on this fic that you can listen to on [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4ASyy4uMsvlwADLSNXDuos?si=-OQexJ_ySRawiGmhiKo8NQ).

Kara was in a daze as her and Luther danced around the room. Her wedding day was a day she thought would never come, her childhood dreams having been dashed away by wartime fears. Remnants of them were still scattered about the palace ballroom – former soldiers with sleek (if even visible) prosthetics, the lack of foreign dignitaries in attendance, the color pink that they’d chosen to adorn the palace and themselves in to honor those who made this day possible.

“What are you thinking about?” Luther asked, Kara’s ears twitching at the sound.

“Lots of things, but mostly – who will our little princess be in this new world?”

“When I imagine her, I see a thoughtful little girl with her mother’s pink markings, ready to make her own choices in a world where there is no threat to stop her, where she sees every living being as a friend rather than a potential foe.”

“Well, I imagine a little girl with her father’s purple markings and intuition. She’ll be a kind and fair ruler who knows nothing of violence or war. She won’t feel her crown as a weight, as a marker that she could be the next one to die as I have so often thought, but instead will see its beauty because she will fully understand the cooperation needed to make it.”

“No matter who she turns out to be – I hope that she will never feel the worry, or fear, or hatred that we have endured.”

The two continued dancing in quiet contemplation only broken by Kara’s laughter as Luther spun her. “And may her laughter never fade.”

A bright light flashed through the open doors leading outside, accompanied by the screams of the partygoers. The ground shook, causing the newlyweds to hold onto each other.  _ I thought the war was truly over… _

__

* * *

“Mother, father, wake up!” A pair of small hands shook Kara’s shoulder.

She opened her eyes, blinking away the sleep to find that next to her, Luther was doing the same. She rolled over lazily, seeing their daughter Alice. She was already dressed, the light of the room reflecting off her crown and her curls bouncing in her excitement.  _ She really did take after her father _ , Kara thought, her gaze landing on the pastel purple crescents under Alice’s eyes. “You’re up early.”

“Can I  _ please  _ go with Josh to meet the Galra ambassador? I know I asked before, and you said you’d think about it, but she’s coming this morning!” She clutched her stuffed fox, Timothy, to her chest, giving a small pout.

Kara glanced at Luther, who nodded. They’d discussed it last night after Alice had gone to bed, knowing that she’d be eager to hear their decision. She was a responsible kid and kept up with her schoolwork, so missing a day wouldn’t be an issue. She could use the extra language practice, too – she’d only learned the Galra language through an Altean teacher who’d worked as a spy during the war, plus her books. And, of course, it would be exposure to the diplomacy that she would be in charge of one day. “Yes, you may join Joshua this morning. As long as you make up the schoolwork that you’ll be missing.”

“Yes! Thank you!” She was about to run out of the room when Luther stopped her.

“Aren’t you forgetting something?”

“Oops.” She crawled up onto the bed and gave each of her parents a kiss.

“Listen to Joshua, and try your best today,” Kara said, kissing her on the forehead.

Luther pressed a kiss to Alice’s cheek. “We have other duties to attend to this morning, but we’ll see you in the afternoon. Have a fun time.”

“I will!” Alice ran out of the room, the door barely having slid open before she was out of sight in the palace hallways.

“Do you think we made the right choice?” Kara asked. “We haven’t had a Galra representative here since… the last time must have been when I was even younger than Alice.”

“But that was the Galra Empire,” Luther said. “The Blade of Marmora has done everything we’ve asked, and taken more steps than we’ve asked in repairing the damage the Empire did. And it won’t just be her and Joshua alone with the ambassador.”

“You’re right. It’s just… well, I suppose this is how any parent would feel,” she said, wondering if Joshua felt the same. He’d always been like a second father to Alice, even when Kara and Luther had encouraged him to go start a family of his own.  _ And now that’s not going to be happening anytime soon. _

“I would be worried if you weren’t a little scared.” Luther pressed a quick kiss against her lips. “We need to get ready. We have a big day ahead.”


	2. Postmortem

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A brief warning that there's some content that may be triggering for those with emetophobia after the scene break in this chapter. I'll put a summary of that section in the end notes if you need to skip it.

“Josh!” Alice shouted when she saw him leaving his room. “Mother and father said I could come with you today!”

He gave her one of those smiles that didn’t quite reach the green markings under his eyes and usually annoyed her because that’s what adults  _ always  _ did when they knew something but were trying to be polite. “That’s great. Now, please let me do my job and advise you before this meeting, okay? Just like I would for your parents.”

She nodded, guessing that their conversation wouldn’t be  _ exactly  _ the same, but she knew he wouldn’t treat her like a little kid, either. She’d always considered him a friend because of that. Suddenly, her stomach rumbled. “Uh… can we eat breakfast first?” she asked, ears drooping in embarrassment.

“I was about to suggest that we discuss this over breakfast,” Josh said as they started walking towards the kitchen. “Breakfast is important for staying awake during even the most boring of diplomatic meetings.”

“There’s no way this will be boring!”

“We’ll see what you think  _ after  _ the meeting,” Josh said before stepping into the kitchen. He emerged with two juniberry parfaits, one of which he handed to her. “We can eat in the dining room, but be careful to not leave any crumbs. We don’t want to create more work for the servants. Today’s already a big day for them.”

She nodded, carefully setting down her parfait on the table after they entered the dining hall, and propping Timothy up on a chair next to her. “So… what do I need to know?” she asked, imaging that was the sort of thing one of her parents would say.

“You’ve heard us talk about the Galra Empire before,” Josh said, waiting for her to nod before continuing. “Before you were born, they attacked lots of planets, including Altea. Eventually, Altea worked with a group of Galra called the Blade of Marmora who didn’t agree with what the Empire was doing. The Blade of Marmora successfully took over the Empire, ending the war. Today will be the first time that one of their members steps foot on Altea.”

Alice carefully placed her spoon in her empty glass. “So who are they sending?” she asked, still not sure what type of government the Blade had. She’d never heard anyone mention a leader before…

“Careful,” Josh said, placing a hand on her wrist, which had turned a dark purple. “The ambassador might not think kindly of shifting to look like her species.”

She hadn’t even noticed that she’d done it, but as she shifted back to her usual form, it was obvious that she’d become taller, reaching Josh’s shoulder. “Sorry.”

“It was an accident. Just try not to do it in front of Ambassador North.”

Their conversation was interrupted as the doors to the dining hall slid open. Markus entered, sitting down beside Josh with his own parfait. “Good morning, Princess. Good morning, Josh,” he said, covering a yawn.

“Were your legs bothering you last night?” Josh asked.

“Yes, but I promised I’d be at this meeting. Hopefully the weather doesn’t hinder the ambassador’s ship.” If Markus’ ears were pointy, they’d probably be drooping miserably with how tired he looked.

“I’m sure her ship will be fine. Galra tech is much sturdier than Earth tech.”

“Is Connor coming?” Alice asked, switching to English and making sure to enunciate clearly.

Markus gave her an approving nod. “He has an appointment with the cardiologist right now, so he won’t be here for the ambassador’s arrival, but he should be joining us shortly after that.”

Even though all she’d been told about the two Earthlings was that they’d landed on Altea the night of her parents’ wedding, she’d pieced together that it probably hadn’t gone that smoothly. She assumed that this had something to do with why she had an English name, but she wasn’t sure of the details and figured that if she asked, the response would be, “You’ll learn when you get older.”

“We should head to the hangar now, if you’re ready,” Josh said in Altean. He exchanged a type of happy look with Markus – the kind of look Alice’s parents sometimes gave each other.

Even though the route was longer, the three of them took the tunnel connecting the palace, which was located in the middle of Altea’s capital city, to the royal hangar located on its outskirts. The booms of falling rain sounded overhead, but Alice wasn’t scared like Timothy was. She held him close to her chest, rubbing his fur soothingly. This was only a light rain, probably about the size of Alice’s fist. As they reached the hangar, they were able to see the light of day – or, rather, the bright streaks of light from the rain – once again.

“I still can’t believe you call falling, firey rocks ‘rain’,” Markus complained. “I’d take a downpour of water any day over this.”

“It’s just that our entire concept of rain is different, but happens to use the same word,” Josh said. Alice watched him and Markus carefully, noticing the way their fingers brushed together before Markus carefully pulled away. She’d asked her parents once why the two of them weren’t married – it had been ten years since Markus arrived! – but they’d quickly changed the subject.  _ It must just be another weird Earthling thing, like water-rain, rounded ears, not having markings, having a taller-than-average height compared to Alteans, using the word “people” to refer to both exclusively Earthlings and all intelligent life… _

The hangar door opened fully, a small black-and-purple ship entering. Out of it stepped the Galra Ambassador – a woman with various red markings on her lavender skin, and a long, white braid that Alice realized was wrapped around her neck like a necklace. She wore a black space suit with glowing purple accents and had a long, curved blade strapped to her back. As she stepped off the ramp and onto the hangar floor, Alice gasped – she was  _ giant _ , even bigger and taller than the Earthlings.

“Welcome to Altea,” Josh said, his ears twitching nervously. “My name is Joshua, Royal Advisor to the Altean Royal Family. These are Princess Alice of Altea, and Markus, an unofficial ambassador of planet Earth.”

“My name is North. The Blade of Marmora sent me.” Her Altean had a rough accent that Alice had never heard before.

“We’ll escort you through to the palace,” Josh said, turning back towards the tunnels.

_ Couldn’t Markus and I have just stayed there? This seems silly. At least we have a people-mover, so we don’t have to walk.  _ Alice didn’t say anything, but maybe she would ask Josh about it later.

“Was the flight okay?” Josh asked North as they walked.

She nodded. “Yes, it was fine. I don’t specialize in piloting, so the landing was slightly difficult considering the weather, but it certainly wasn’t the worst conditions I’ve been in.”

“Is there something else you specialize in?” Alice asked, figuring it was an appropriate question.

“Swordsmanship. Every Marmora member has a blade and goes through some basic training, but I chose to continue learning more advanced techniques.”

_ That doesn’t sound too different from the basics we learn in school… it would be cool if we got to use swords, though. _

“Here we are,” Josh said, taking the group into a meeting room. Connor, the other Earthling who had come to Altea with Markus, was already seated. “This is Connor, also from Earth.”

North gave him a nod as she sat down. “The first order of business,” she said, “Is the Red Lion of Voltron. The red lion is the only remaining captured ship, and our space cruisers are incompatible with Altean ports. You’ll need to send a pilot.”

Alice had heard the legend of Voltron – how it had remained undefeated until the war with the Galra Empire, when the five lions separated for the final time. There was a special memorial for the five paladins on Altea, but she’d never been to it.

Josh shook his head. “The Voltron lions can only be piloted by their respective paladins. The only way the red lion is leaving is if it chooses a new paladin.”

“Fine, then how do we get a paladin?” North asked sternly.

“We wait. Legend says that the red lion is the most difficult – it only comes to its paladin’s aid when they are in grave danger. Considering that none of the others have chosen new paladins, and we are now in a time of peace, it is unlikely that the lion will choose a paladin any time soon.”

“You  _ really  _ believe a children’s story?”

“It is not a  _ story _ ; it is a  _ history _ ,” Josh said, seeming to lose patience. He’d never done that before – at least, not around Alice.

“Really? Because believing in a greater good like that – that’s the sort of thing that gets you killed. There are no heroes in the universe, nothing that can make someone undeniably good. If there was, we would be meeting under  _ very  _ different circumstances.”

Alice looked to Josh.

“Voltron is real, and so is the quintessence that connects the paladins and their lions. Everyone who grew up on Altea at the same time I did – we all  _ knew  _ that. We  _ saw  _ it, with our own eyes.”

“And I thought Altea was all about science and progress,” North said sarcastically. “At least we can say we stand by our motto of ‘Knowledge or Death’.”

The blue message light blinked from the corner of the room. “We’ll continue this conversation later,” Josh said. “The Queen and King are ready to receive us for lunch.”

The meal was boring, to say the least. Another round of introductions, as well as small talk. At least the food was good, as always.

Then a red light started blinking – the signal that an urgent distress call was coming. “I’ll be right back,” Alice’s mother said, getting up and slipping out of the room.

It was absolutely silent until she came back. “We need to go to the hangar immediately. Ambassador, that includes you. Markus, are you able to pilot?”

“Yes,” he said, immediately getting up.

Alice followed everyone else, though it seemed like she shouldn’t be. She’d always been sent to her room during distress calls in the past, but now she actually got to  _ go  _ somewhere. She hoped it wasn’t a mistake. Her heart raced.  _ It can’t be too serious, otherwise they wouldn’t have let me come. _

They got into one of the second-smallest ships in their fleet – the smallest passenger ship that was able to hold the seven of them. Markus and her mother entered first, taking the pilot’s and navigator’s seats, while the rest of them strapped themselves in on the passenger benches.

Alice had been flying with Markus a couple times before, on one of the two-person ships where you could feel everything more strongly. She was familiar with all the procedures he went through before leaving the hangar and taking off. Then, finally, he asked Kara the question that Alice had been wondering.

“Destination?”

“Balmera X-95-Vox.”

“Why do you need all of  _ us  _ to come with?” North asked, once they were safely out of Altea’s atmosphere. “I can see bringing one or two others with you, but…”

“The yellow paladin has been chosen.”

* * *

“Control, we will be landing in t minus one minute,” Emily said into the radio, feeling the anticipation build within her.  _ Maybe we’ll find out what happened to Officers Manfred and Anderson while we’re out here. _

“Landing gear deploying now,” Damian said. They were Emily’s best friend, and also the pilot she’d been assigned to fly with – essentially, the person she trusted the most. There was nothing they couldn’t do. “Landing gear deploying now,” Damian said again. Then, after a huff of frustration, “I think the landing gear’s stuck.”

Their engineer unfastened his seatbelt and got up, only to immediately fall on the floor as the ship made a quick movement. “Hey!”

“There was a rock formation,” Damian said. “Now can you  _ please _ hurry up?”

“Landing in t minus thirty seconds,” Emily said into the radio, still confident that they could make the landing properly.

“Not if the landing gear doesn’t deploy soon,” Damian commented, a bit of anxiousness creeping into their voice.

_ Come on, Damian, you can get through these last few seconds.  _ They’d been a wreck all morning – Commander Phillips made most people at least a bit nervous, even her – but had gotten calmer once they’d boarded the ship.

A retching noise came from the engineer.

“Emily, what was that?”

Emily looked over to where their engineer was kneeling over the open gearbox. “Unapproved lubricant,” she said, not wanting to worry Damian further, considering that Commander Phillips was about to have their heads. She was maybe more than a  _ bit  _ nervous, now.

The ship shuddered as it hit the ground, the engineer holding on to the gearbox for dear life. Then everything went dark.

_ “Simulation failed.” _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Summary of what happened after the scene break:
> 
> Emily and Damian, who are best friends, are flying in a ship with an unnamed engineer that they aren't close with. Emily thinks about them discovering what happened to Officers Anderson and Manfred at some point, and is very confident in Damian's piloting abilities. Damian attempts to land the ship, but the landing gear gets stuck. The engineer is unable to fix the landing gear due to getting motion sick. Emily attempts to hide this from Damian since the three of them are likely going to get in trouble with Commander Phillips, and she knows that Damian tends to be a nervous wreck around him and doesn't want to make things worse. The ship then "crashes" and it's revealed that this was actually a simulation that they failed.


	3. A New Defender

It was a normal day for Si. Wake everyone up, help prepare meals, check for damaged tunnels, wrangle the children, sneak away to the surface at nightfall. Thousands of blue crystals grew on the surface of the Balmera, reflecting the twinkling of the stars in what Dan always called “the most beautiful thing in the universe”. Even though Si knew it was a gift to care for the Balmera, he always wondered if that was really true. Could one of those millions of stars hold something even more beautiful? Even if they didn’t… surely there could be something of use out there, something that would help them in protecting the Balmera should a force like the Galra Empire ever return.

“There you are,” Dan said, Si feeling the vibrations of his footsteps as he approached. “Looking at the stars, as always.”

“You can’t fault me for doing the one thing we would’ve gotten killed for as children.”

“The Empire ruined everything. You never would’ve wanted to leave so badly if our Balmera hadn’t been stripped of all its crystals, all its life force. Then it would’ve been able to provide for you, to make you happy as we grew.”

Si shook his head. “I can’t tell you what would be different in another universe. But is it really such a bad thing, wanting to leave? There are good people out there, like the Alteans. If they hadn’t helped us, our Balmera and all of us would be dead, just empty husks floating in space. But with their miracles, the Balmera is back to full health.”

“Their miracles are unnatural! This beast they brought us – it may have replenished the crystals, but how do we know that it is truly different from the machines the Galra brought to take them away?”

“The yellow lion is not like the machines of the Empire.” A comforting rumble from the Balmera ran through Si, giving him the confidence to continue. “Have you not seen the way his eyes gleam, just like yours and mine?”

Dan scoffed. “You’re just seeing an illusion. Sight can be useful, but it is not to be trusted.”

“Then I’ll show you something you  _ can  _ believe.” He placed his palm on the ground, making it vibrate. Immediately, he felt a vibration back – not the deep ones from the Balmera that penetrated through every layer of hardness all the way to your gut, but still stronger than one from another Balmeran.

“I feel nothing,” Dan said, pressing his palm against the ground to be sure. “I’m going to head back into the caves before I succumb to –“ He finished his thought by gesturing towards the stars and the lion.

Si looked up at the stars, hoping to get a few minutes of peace before the sun rose and he would have to return to the caves. As he gazed up at them, he noticed one of the stars seemed to be larger than it was before Dan had joined him. Then he realized – it wasn’t a star at all, but a small ship. Much smaller than the ones the Galra had brought.  _ I’m the only one out here… I’ll have to make sure it lands without harming the Balmera.  _ He crouched down, pressing his hand against the ground and shuffling backwards, creating a glowing blue line that would remain temporarily on the Balmera’s surface.  _ Now for the other side… hopefully this landing strip will be the right size.  _ He could only make it so big without allowing the ship to fall into the caves or crush one of the Balmera’s crystals.

He immediately recognized the sleek white and grey lines of the ship as it landed.  _ It’s the Alteans! But… why are they here? _

He recognized the king and queen immediately as they stepped out of the ship. A child followed them, wearing the crown the queen had worn the last time the Altean Royal Family had been to the Balmera.

“Welcome,” he said in Altean, suddenly feeling the pressure of interspecies relations. “My name is Si. You’re lucky I was still out when you arrived, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to help you land.”

“My apologies,” the queen said. “It was rather urgent. We tried to get here as quickly as possible. May we speak with your people?”

Si nodded. “I’ll let them know.” He pressed his palm to the ground once again, the Balmera taking his message and delivering it to the other Balmerans. He received an affirmative response – plus some extra vibrations that seemed to trace back to the ship. “You have more people on your ship.”

“Yes, we do. We were in the middle of a diplomatic meeting when we received a signal from the yellow lion. I hope you do not take the presence of our guests as a threat, but everything will be explained.”

Another Altean disembarked from the ship, followed by two members of a species unknown to Si. They were a pupilled species that looked similar to the Alteans, but without the markings and with rounded ears. One of them had footfalls that felt distinctly different from other beings, like it was some combination of mechanics and quintessence. Si came to a sudden understanding when a Galra stepped out. He planted his feet firmly on the ground, ready to send a message for help if needed –  _ never let the softness of their flesh and fur fool you, they’re ruthless  _ \-- when he noticed that their armor was different from that of the Galra Empire.  _ I hope this one is part of the new group that took over… and that these people are truly better… _

“You have lights?” Si asked. The other Altean held them up before passing them out to the other members of the party and demonstrating how to fasten them onto their heads. “Make sure you keep them as dim as possible. The cave entrance is this way.” He walked to the entrance, the royals following just behind him.

“It’s dark down there!” the little one said, clutching some sort of toy to their chest. “Wait… why does everyone have lights except me?”

Si knelt down next to them. “You have one right here,” he said, tapping his forehead.

The little one made a face that he assumed must be confusion. “My crown?”

“Yes. Balmeran crystals have a high concentration of quintessence, allowing them to reflect exactly however much light you need to see. No more, no less.”

“That’s where the inspiration for Altean headlamps came from,” the other Altean explained, coming to stand next to the king and queen.

“Though they’re much cruder, and only respond to the wearer rather than anyone who is around,” Si added.

After they’d climbed down the ladders – the stone ramps and stairways that existed before the Galra would take much longer than Si had been alive to regrow -- it didn’t take long for the group to reach the cooking fire. “Sit down,” one of the elder Balmerans said. “We’ve prepared a meal. It’s not much, but it was the best we could do on short notice.”

Dan was already seated. Si sat down next to him, and felt a message from his brother immediately.  _ “Why did you bring a Galra down here? Your foolishness is going to get us all killed!” _

“My apologies for the short notice,” the Altean Queen said, sitting down with her family next to the Elder Balmeran. “We received a signal from the yellow lion and had to come as quickly as possible.”

“Let’s eat first, then we can discuss,” the Elder said, dishing out bowls of stew and passing them around the circle.

After the food was passed around, Si introduced himself to the person next to him – the one of the unfamiliar species with the typical footsteps. “My name is Si,” he said, tapping one of the horns on his head.

“My name is Connor,” the other said. “Why did you tap your – um –“

“Horn?”

“Yes, that,” Connor said, shifting uncomfortably.

“It’s our way of reminding outsiders of our genders,” he explained. “The ones who have a connection with womanhood have piercings on their horns, while the rest of us do not.”

“I see,” Connor said, gazing around the circle. Si looked as well, spotting the little one whispering something sharply to the Altean Queen. The Queen whispered something back to the little one before removing a slug from their bowl of stew and putting it in her own bowl. Connor cleared their throat, bringing Si’s attention back to them. “I – don’t experience a connection to womanhood, if you needed to know that.”

Si nodded. “What you would do then, is when you introduce yourself you’d tap your ear.”

“Okay… thank you for telling me.”

“What planet do you come from, that you didn’t know this?” Usually those who came to the Balmera were more informed than this – besides the Galra, obviously.

“Markus and I are from Earth,” Connor said, gesturing to the person next to him. “Our planet didn’t even know if there was other life in the universe, much less intelligent life. I was one of the leading scientists from our planet who was studying this… until we crash-landed on Altea. While Markus found it easy to pick up piloting Altean ships, I really didn’t know enough to be able to work alongside the Altean scientists, except to add information about Earth to their planetary database. But I never found that fulfilling… not like my work on Earth was.”

“I wish I knew what it was like to miss home… I’ve never left the Balmera. Even if you’re somewhere else within her, she’ll deliver messages to any other Balmeran. She is our home, our gift, and we are a gift to her.”

As they finished eating, everyone passed their bowls back around the circle so they could be stacked and put to the side to be taken care of later. “I believe you had a message to deliver?” the Elder said to the Altean Queen.

She nodded before pressing her palm against the ground. Si, as well as the other Balmerans and Alteans, followed suit, the little one needing prompting from the Altean King.

“This is Queen Kara of Altea,” she said, both aloud and in her message. “We came to this Balmera today after receiving a message from the yellow lion, which has been helping to heal the Balmera after the crystal mining and other activities performed by the Galra Empire that damaged it. The yellow lion has chosen a new paladin – a Balmeran residing here on Balmera X-95-Vox -- to assist it in defending the universe.”

_ “Si, please tell me you’re not the paladin,”  _ Dan said.  _ “Because everything you said earlier, about the beast – it sounds like something a paladin might say.” _

“While this is a great honor, we also understand that promoting the health of the Balmera, as well as prioritizing the symbiotic relationship between her and the Balmerans, is of the utmost importance. As of right now, none of the other Voltron lions have chosen new paladins, and there is no threat in the universe requiring Voltron to be active. When Voltron’s services are needed, the Alteans will also require a battleship-class crystal to provide power to the Altean castle, as it is currently being powered by the green lion. We have chosen to inform you of this proposal now because every moment has now become a moment the yellow paladin could spend training with their lion, preparing to defend the universe, including the Balmera, against any threat against it.”

The messages back came quickly but clearly, the voices of a thousand Balmerans filling his head. Some expressed concerns over the effects of the lion leaving, others with reports of what good health the Balmera was in, and still others had further questions for the queen. He even heard the voice of one of the smallest Balmeran children, asking who the lion had chosen as paladin.

“In response to your questions,” Queen Kara replied, “We will perform the rejuvenation ceremony after extracting the crystal, per the traditions of the ancients. And no, I do not know who the paladin is. Only they would know that.”

Si felt a rumbling from the yellow lion then, and he knew. It was him.

“What’s going on?” Connor whispered.

“Balmerans and Alteans can communicate through the Balmera,” Si whispered back. “There are other Balmerans all over, and we’re discussing what we should do.”

“Oh,” Connor said, eyes widening.

“You’ll have a lot to tell the people on Earth about, once you go back,” Si said.

Connor smiled. “Yes. I will.”

A silence settled as the discussion finished. “I believe we’ve come to a conclusion,” the Elder Balmeran said. “The yellow lion, its paladin, and one battleship-class crystal will be leaving with our guests.”

“ _ His _ paladin,” Si said. “The yellow lion is a he.” He glanced at Dan, who looked away as he pressed his palm to the ground.

_ “I want you to be happy. I just don’t want to lose you. We’ve had so much taken from us… I don’t know what I would do if something happened to you. Maybe that’s a little selfish, to want that of someone who’s supposed to be defending the universe, but you’re my brother.” _

_ “I’ll come back. We won’t be defending the universe all the time. And when we are – well, I always wanted to do something, when the Galra were here. Now I’ll actually be able to do something.” _

_ “You were always ‘doing something’, just by being here. You cared for the Balmera as best you could. You gave me stories of hope when I had lost them. Those are gifts that I will always cherish.” _

Those words… they meant more than anyone else would know.  _ “And now you’re giving me the gift of letting me follow my dreams, which is one I will always cherish.” _

_ “Thank you.” _

The two stood, clasping each other’s forearms before hugging. “No matter where in the universe I am, I will always be your brother, and I will always love you.”

“I love you, too,” Dan said. “Wherever you are, I will always know you as my brother.”

They stayed that way for a while, until they heard the others return with the crystal. Si hadn’t even noticed that they’d left. “This is it,” he said, pulling away, steadying himself for a moment before saying the word he’d only ever associated with death and destruction. “Goodbye.”

“Goodbye,” Dan said, walking up to the cave entrance with the other Balmerans.

Si squinted in the sunlight as he walked to the yellow lion. The lion’s eyes gleamed before he bowed down to Si, opening his mouth to reveal a ramp to his interior. Si took a breath before stepping onto it – this was the first time his feet had ever left the surface of the Balmera. He felt unsteady without her calming vibrations under his feet, and looked back, wondering if the yellow lion and the Balmerans had really made the right choice. But then he saw Dan wave, and remembered – this was his brother’s gift. This was his love, in its purest form.

He waved back, before turning around for the final time and continuing up the ramp. The lion purred comfortingly, simulating the vibrations Si was used to. He sat down in the yellow paladin’s chair –  _ his  _ chair – as the dashboard in front of him lit itself dimly so it wouldn’t blind him.

A picture appeared in front of him, showing Markus and Kara in their ship, along with the rest of the group. “You’ll be carrying the crystal in your lion’s belly,” Kara explained. “All you’ll need to do is follow us back to Altea. Your lion will know how to do that, but if you have questions, you can ask Markus. He’s an excellent pilot and teacher.”

_ “Alright, Yellow,”  _ Si said.  _ “Let’s go.” _


	4. Code of Honor

Damian knocked on the door to Emily’s dorm room. “Are you done changing yet?” they asked.

“Almost done!” she called back. A moment later, she opened the door. “Why is  _ orange  _ the color of the Garrison? Seriously, I’m never going to be able to look at that color again once I’m old and retired.”

Damian laughed as they entered, letting the door slam shut behind them. “Wow, you’re looking pretty far ahead.”

She rolled her eyes as she sat down at her desk. “I’m just trying to distract myself from this English assignment. Like, I know we need this class to graduate high school, but could someone  _ please  _ explain why we have to analyze books in a literal space exploration school?”

“Yeah, what are we going to do with that? Analyze the creative works of the intelligent life we  _ won’t  _ find in our lifetime?”

“Yeah, right. Now could you  _ please  _ help me with this so we can actually hang out tonight?”

“Okay, fine. But what would you do if your best friend  _ wasn’t  _ on the honor roll?”

Emily shrugged. “Get grounded for life, I guess. Or get expelled.”

“I mean, I don’t think good grades can protect you from expulsion… Phillips’ own daughter was on the honor roll  _ and  _ got a new high score on the simulator, and he still expelled her!”

“Those few weeks last year after she beat Manfred’s score… those were tough.” She’d been glad that she wasn’t a pilot – knowing that you probably wouldn’t ever score that high probably would’ve felt like failure. And add in how her relationship with Damian had suffered…

“I’m sorry I stopped talking to you… I was just mad about it. I mean, he’s my hero, but no one ever talks about him and Anderson here since they don’t want to think about how they’re dead… and then someone from our grade did better than him at the simulator. It just made me wonder how long it would take before everyone forgets. And then you were all happy for Emma.”

“I was just crushing hard… went away pretty quick after she got expelled. I mean, she had to have done something pretty bad, right? Maybe she murdered someone.”

“Ah, yes, I can see it now: ‘My Teenage Crush on a Murderer: A True Story’ by Emily Wilson.”

She giggled. “Shut up and help me with this assignment, or we won’t have any time to hang out before curfew!”

Damian pushed some papers over and sat down on her desk. “Of course. Anything to make everyone think we’re dating when we’ve told them a million times that we’re not.”

* * *

North stepped out of her ship, Joshua and Markus following her. “Stay with me,” she said, “And you’ll be fine. No one’s going to bite you here.”

Joshua’s ears twitched, and she could’ve sworn he started whispering something about her blade to Markus before the latter shushed him.  _ I had to bring one of the Alteans with me, and I knew their royals wouldn’t be too happy about needing to forgo titles here. And who better to accompany him than the man who loves him? _

“Echo, Ripple!” she shouted, her voice echoing through the halls of the ship. “I’m here, with our guests!”

A meow echoed back to her just before a small, black cat with blue, diamond-shaped markings along her back rounded the corner.

“A cat!” Markus seemed… rather excited about the shifter’s form. “Connor is going to be jealous once I tell him about this,” he said, kneeling down and holding his hand out. “Especially since the closest thing we’ve seen to dogs out here are those domesticated bears on Altea…”

“They’re called klanmuirls,” Joshua corrected teasingly.

Echo clearly felt some level of comfort with their guests, getting teasingly close to Markus as if she was going to let him pet her before walking up to North instead. “Is your girlfriend coming?” North asked.

“Girlfriend?” Markus asked as he stood up. “Wait, how does a cat –“

Ripple entered the room, her blade encompassed in a special holder allowing her to use it as a cane, and her hood drawn over her face to obscure her lack of… well, anything.  _ “I see you’ve met my girlfriend,”  _ she said, her voice ringing through North’s head. By the way Joshua and Markus both startled, she assumed they’d heard it, too.

Joshua glanced between Ripple and North, but didn’t say anything. Markus spoke up. “That’s nice that you get to be together. You said there was someone else here… Echo?”

Echo meowed.

_ “Yes, this is Echo, my girlfriend,”  _ Ripple said, kneeling down so she could pet Echo.

Markus looked to Joshua for an explanation. He only shrugged, looking confused.

_ “Echo and I each have a parent that isn’t Galra,”  _ Ripple explained, walking towards the red lion’s hangar while the rest of them followed.  _ “That’s why we defected and joined the Blade of Marmora.” _

“That sounds…” Markus struggled to find words. “… bad.”

“It was,” North said. “The Empire did many brutish and cruel things, even to their own people. The higher a person’s rank, the more power they got, offering them more protection… but also allowing them to view others as further and further below them. That’s why we abolished ranks, titles, even symbols of power in the Blade of Marmora.”

They got to an intersection between hallways. “This way,” North said, Markus and Joshua following her as she turned to the right. Echo gave a quick meow after turning the corner, allowing Ripple to follow. “This is where we keep the Red Lion,” North said, pressing her palm against the scanner by the hangar door.

The red lion hovered in midair, a spherical force field surrounding it, just like always.

Joshua stepped closer, looking up at the lion in awe. “I’ve never seen any of the lions this close before… the green lion is kept well-protected, so hardly anybody ever sees her.”

The cruiser shuddered, the sound echoing through the hangar. “ _ What _ was that?” Markus asked, taking Joshua’s hand and stepping a little closer to him.

“I don’t know,” North said. She was about to ask Echo to go check, but realized she’d already darted off.

A few moments later, her voice sounded over the intercom, as she must have shifted back to Galra form. “Something’s wrong with the hangar doors. You need to get out of there, now!”

Markus and Josh got out of the hangar immediately, North staying behind to make sure Ripple got out okay. Then she heard a creaking coming from the large doors in the floor. “Go without me!” she shouted, slamming the button that caused the hangar to seal off from the rest of the cruiser before grabbing onto the frame of the door.

She closed her eyes and activated her mask and breathing gear as she felt the vacuum of space pull at her. There was nothing anyone could do, no one to come and save her the way the Blade had been there for her after everything. The Blade of Marmora wasn’t a group of heroes -- they were just people who happened to share a common goal. 

Her grip on the doorframe began to slip. She never thought a simple mechanical malfunction would be how she went, but here she was, dangling, her grip slowly failing. No, it wasn’t failing – people just weren’t meant to hold on for that long. As she fell, she opened her eyes – the stars really were beautiful, weren’t they. Not like the memories she’d fallen into so many times before this, always crying and panicky. No, she was calm now. Someone would come before her air supply ran out -- it wouldn’t look good if she died while an Altean diplomat was on board the cruiser. Maybe she didn’t believe in selfless heroes like Joshua did, but she knew someone would be there.

A comforting roar echoed through her head – where else would the sound be, she was in space – as the red lion emerged from his slumber. He flew towards her, jaws open wide, ready to engulf her.  _ Hey, boy. I’m glad you’re here. _

* * *

“Come on,” Emma said under her breath. Finally, the last screw on the front panel of her hoverbike was tightened. She pulled her hand out of her glove and shook it out, trying to get it a  _ little  _ less sore before she took the bike out for the night. Then she put her glove back on and put the screwdriver back in its place on her tool belt before grabbing her backpack. She opened it up, looking through its contents.  _ Water, filter, trail mix, battery…  _ She continued down her mental list.  _ Everything’s here. _

Noticing that it was still a bit too light out, she took out her star chart instead and brought it inside the tiny shack she called home. It covered the entire floor when fully unfolded, like she was doing now. _I just have to be sure… tonight should be the night._ _Or possibly tomorrow, when accounting for error, and considering I literally traced this off the walls of a desert cave that I found through coordinates in highly-classified government records… who knows what the proper error calculations would be._

It wasn’t like she had anywhere better to be, anyways, after getting kicked out of school and home for getting into those highly-classified government records. She could just keep going out until she found something interesting.  _ I should head out now… I’ll reach the cave by dark this way.  _ She pulled on her jacket – not something most visitors to the space base realized you needed in the desert, but nights were chilly, and sand  _ stung  _ when it hit you at high speed. Next was a pair of goggles, with straps that were always a pain to adjust around her ponytail and had enough suction that they left round, red markings around her eyes for a good couple hours after taking them off. Last was her bandana, which she’d let soak in water earlier in the day before setting it out to dry for a bit. As she tied it around her neck and adjusted it over her mouth and nose, it was obviously damp, but not soaking wet.

The familiar vibrations of the bike helped a sense of calm fill her as she drove towards the edge of the nearby cliff overlooking the town and base. A quick glance down told her she had just the right velocity… and off she went, her stomach rising up to her throat during those precious few seconds of free fall. Under the bandana, she was grinning – quite the departure from the little girl who’d tried this and cried the whole time, even though she did it successfully. That time, her dad had been waiting at the bottom to hug and comfort her, and her mom was back on the base waiting to hear all about her adventures.

Now, she had no one.


	5. All Good Things

It was pretty late by the time Josh, Markus, and North returned from the Galra base with the red lion, so Josh wasn’t surprised that only the Queen and King, as well as Connor, were waiting to meet them.

“We’ve arranged a room for you, North, if you’d like to stay the night,” Luther said.

North nodded. “That would be appreciated… thank you.”

One of the servants arrived promptly to show her the way.

“I’m going to go to bed as well,” Markus said, once she was out of earshot. “Josh?”

Josh shook his head. “I’m going to check on the crystal, but I’ll be there shortly.”

“Okay.”

“You’re really in love,” Luther said as Josh watched Markus walk away.

“And you’ve known me for too long,” Josh said to Kara and Luther as they walked towards the engine room.

“I wouldn’t want anyone else as my royal advisor,” Kara said. “I told you two that you’d get to live in the castle when I became queen, and now here we are.”

They all knew this wasn’t exactly how she’d meant it, but the war – and, consequently, the death of her parents and her becoming queen – had changed that. The three of them had grown up together, and Josh had spent so much time in the castle’s library that it had felt like a second home to him. He’d spent hours studying there, at first out of curiosity, but later out of discomfort with his own body. In peacetime, most Altean adults didn’t use their shapeshifting abilities – at least, not any he knew in person, but he’d read about communities of people who used them to alleviate that discomfort. Eventually, the war had become dire enough that he’d decided he needed to tell everyone who he truly was, in case something happened while his parents were away or the capital was attacked – but sometimes he wondered what would’ve happened if he’d had more time, if he’d been able to reach one of those communities first. 

They were gone now. Sometimes he thought about what else might have been lost from the war, but he’d quickly realized that it wasn’t good to dwell on that too often.

“Here we are,” Kara said, scanning her palm next to the door to the engine room.

Josh walked up to the crystal, his eyes darting across the various wires that connected it to the castle’s power supply. His grandfather had taught him all about this, having been the royal engineer until he’d finally been able to retire after the war. Josh had been so relieved when he’d taken a liking to Markus, though he knew in his heart that having only  _ his  _ family’s blessing, without having the blessing of Markus’ family, wouldn’t be enough to be able to take things further without causing a scandal. Not when he was in a position so close to the Altean royals.

“What’s this, around the lion?” Connor asked, having apparently followed them in.

Josh turned to face the green lion – the smallest of all the lions, though looking up at it still made his neck sore. “That’s a force field,” he explained. “It’s the main line of defense for the lions while they don’t have paladins. It’s a really ingenious design – the mechanics behind the forcefield system are essentially the same as wormholing systems, but the calculations used –“

“Josh!” Kara said, sounding surprised. “Your markings!”

His hand instinctively went to one of the crescents underneath his eye. Glancing down, he noticed it: a pale green glow reflecting off his fingers. “What—“

“The lion,” Luther said.

The forcefield was coming down – a textbook indication that the lion had chosen a paladin.

He stepped forward. “You want me, as your paladin?” he asked her.

The green lion gave an affirmative purr inside his head.

“I can’t believe it,” he said. “I’ve spent my whole life reading about Voltron, learning everything about it, and now—“ A thought occurred to him. “I need to tell Markus!”

Kara and Luther nodded, and it only barely registered in his mind that Connor was no longer in the room.

* * *

Markus had  _ just  _ taken off his prosthetic legs when he heard a knock on the door. “Come in,” he said, thinking it was Josh.

Connor entered the room, still dressed in the clothes he’d been wearing that day, making Markus feel a little indecent in only a purple sleep tunic and without two of his limbs.

“I hope I’m not interrupting,” Connor said, “But this is important.”

Markus had never seen quite the look on Connor’s face. “What is it?”

“The lions… they have a power I didn’t know about. They can wormhole.”

_ Wormhole? That would be an interesting piloting experience, when done on purpose. But why does Connor seem so…  _ emotional  _ about it?  _ “What about it?”

“They can  _ wormhole _ , Markus! Do you know how far they could travel, and in how little time? Well, obviously you do, since that’s apparently how we  _ got  _ here, but… don’t you get it?”

“Get  _ what _ , Connor?”

“We could go home.”

Markus stared at Connor.  _ But I am home. I have Josh.  _ Then he realized what Connor meant. “Connor… I am  _ not  _ stealing a lion and taking you back to Earth. You know I’d never do that to Josh.”

“Don’t you remember what you said, ten years ago, before we left on that mission?” Connor asked. “You said it was going to be your last one for a while. So you could take care of your father.”

He hadn’t thought about Carl in a long time. Well, that wasn’t true… he’d thought about Carl. But after spending ten years on an alien planet, wouldn’t it be odd if you  _ didn’t  _ start to see your past in a completely different light? “Connor, if you remembered that, you’d also remember that I had no idea how much time he had left. The odds that he’s still alive after  _ ten years  _ aren’t that high.”

Connor stilled. Looking off to the side, he blinked a couple times. “So that’s it for you, then?” he asked, turning his gaze back to Markus. “He’s dead, so… you’d be fine if you never went back?”

“Do you know why I wanted to go to space?”

Connor raised an eyebrow. “No, but… what does that have to do with anything?”

“I never felt like I fit in, back on Earth. I never had someone I really considered a friend – not even my own brother. When I was a kid, I’d play by myself on the playground, pretending that I was an alien who was wandering Earth, trying to understand its people. But it wasn’t just a game for me – it was my life. When you’ve never really felt like you were ‘home’ your whole life, why wouldn’t you be fine with trading one not-home for another?” It was hard, trying to put it all into words, but those were the best ones he could find. He just had to hope that Connor understood them, because he wasn’t sure he  _ had  _ any more.

“I don’t get it,” Connor admitted. “I always had everything, always had everyone that I needed – but if that’s how you feel, then that’s how you feel.” He turned his head, his breath hitching. “I just want to see my son again,” he said, his voice cracking through the tears.

The door slid open, and Josh walked in. “Markus! Oh,” he said, noticing Connor. “I didn’t realize you were here.”

“I should get going,” Connor said, slipping past Josh with his face turned away. The door slid shut behind him.

“What was that about?” Josh asked, slipping off his clothes.

Markus shrugged, something heavy blocking him from forming any words.

“Markus?” He didn’t even notice when Josh finished changing until he sat down next to him. “Are you having a shutdown right now?”

He nodded jerkily. Shutdown was the word they’d come up with to describe this – this state, when it felt like every emotion had built up in his head, blocking him from doing anything else, even thinking about the feelings themselves.

“Do you want to lay down with me? It’s time for bed anyways.”

He curled up on his side next to Josh, focusing on the way the shadows from the light played across the sheets of the bed and his lover’s skin. It helped calm him, helped him sort through all the emotions in his head that had gotten jammed up, that he couldn’t process because they’d come too quickly.

“Can I touch you?” Josh asked.

He opened his mouth to speak on instinct, then remembered that this was Josh. Even though he could probably push himself to speak now, Josh wouldn’t mind that he didn’t answer verbally and would still see him as an equal. He nodded again.

Josh wrapped his arm around Markus, pressing firm circles into his back. It felt nice – well, not exactly that, but he didn’t know what the word was that he was looking for. Maybe he’d think of it in the morning.

“Lights off,” Josh said, the room’s lights dimming until they were fully off. “Good night, Markus.”

Markus pressed a quick kiss to his lips.  _ Goodnight. _


	6. The Way Forward

Cole tapped his foot against the concrete roof of the dorms, lost within the music pounding through his headphones. Opening his eyes, he was relieved to see that the download had  _ finally  _ finished. Clicking to unzip it – which would apparently take a few more minutes, or one more song, if his laptop was to be trusted – he looked down at the town below. Lights glowed from what seemed like every building, though it was difficult to tell since the base was set out farther from the town.  _ Wonder what Dad’s doing. I hope Sumo’s keeping him company.  _ He frowned a little at that.  _ I really miss Sumo right now. I wish we could have pets here.  _ He rocked back and forth a bit, thinking back to days of laying on the couch, Sumo lying across his stomach while he ran his hands through the dog’s fur.

That was the same couch his dad was sitting on that night, the living room lights turned off, leaving only the glow of the TV in the living room. Cole had only been six at the time, but he’d known that something was off about that phone call, about how his dad had told him to leave the room while he’d talked in a hushed voice. And the rest of the day – he hadn’t laughed at Cole’s jokes, barely smiled, and didn’t even notice when Sumo whined to be let out. That was why Cole couldn’t sleep that night, even though everything about the routine had technically been exactly as it should, why he’d snuck downstairs, Sumo at his heels.

Those formal pictures of Connor and Officer Manfred, with the words “presumed dead” underneath, would be burned into his memory forever. He’d snuck back to bed, but didn’t sleep, only looking up at the stars where apparently Connor had gone and was never coming back, was never going to be his dad again. And then he’d seen it – or, rather, he  _ didn’t _ see it.

The blue light.

The file unzipped, he clicked on the folder. He swore that he remembered there being a blue light in the sky when he looked up at it during that blissful time between Connor leaving and Earth losing contact with him, but everyone he’d asked either didn’t care enough to remember or showed him pictures from during that time that clearly showed only black in that space in the sky.

He was determined to prove them wrong, to prove that he  _ had  _ seen it and that it wasn’t just a childish fantasy or a detail he’d added in hindsight. He’d gone so far as making sure he got into the Garrison, just like Connor, so he could have access to every database, every picture from numerous observatories throughout the US.  _ Someone  _ had to have been looking that night;  _ someone  _ had to have seen it.

He slipped the necklace he wore under his shirt into his mouth, chewing on it absently as he tuned out everything else around him. These pictures were the only thing that mattered. He stared intensely at that spot in each one, sometimes thinking the light was there until he superimposed his drawing of what he thought the sky had looked like onto it and realized that no, it wasn’t. But then… then he found it.  _ He found it. _ Now he could say to every classmate or teacher who’d ever said he was “too obsessed” with the whole thing that he’d been right the whole time, because apparently for a moment, it  _ had  _ been there.

“What are you doing?”

“Wha—“ Cole yanked off his headphones and turned around. He relaxed a little when he saw it was just two of his classmates and not one of the teachers, until he remembered that he’d thrown up in the simulator with them during class.

“Come on, it doesn’t like he’s doing anything interesting, anyways,” Damian said. “We should just go back inside and have a sleepover instead of staying out here and getting into trouble.”

Emily ignored Damian, sitting down next to Cole instead. “So you’re… looking at the stars?” she asked, looking at the screen of his laptop.

He slammed it shut before stuffing it and his headphones into the backpack he’d brought out with him. “It’s none of your business,” he said, a bit more forcefully than he intended.

“Do you want to come hang out with us?” Damian asked nervously.

“I’d really rather not,” Cole said. He had too much to think about, and if he hung out with them they’d notice that he wasn’t paying attention, so then they’d ask him what he was thinking about, and then they’d end up making fun of him or something.

Damian and Emily shared a look before Damian asked, “It’s not because you think we’re dating, is it? Because we’re not. Not that Emily isn’t a really nice person! But we’re just friends.”

He hadn’t even considered that. “No, it’s not that,” he said, his mind suddenly wandering.  _ If Damian and Emily aren’t dating, does that mean…? _

Suddenly, a loud noise started up from the building.

“The earthquake siren is going off… and we’re not even in bed like we’re supposed to be,” Damian said, glancing back at the door to the roof. “I think we should head back inside.”

“Wait, what’s that down there?” Emily asked, pointing down at the desert below them.

“What – oh!”

Cole squinted at the shadows down below, trying to figure out what the two of them were seeing, until he realized that one of the shadows was moving at high speed in the direction of the nearby fault line.

“I think we should go take a look,” Emily said, jogging towards the ladder that led down from the roof.

Cole slung his backpack over his shoulders before following her.  _ This has already been a strange night… and what if this is connected to Connor’s disappearance? _

“Okay, fine, I’m coming,” Damian said, following behind them.

* * *

Luther glanced nervously at Kara at breakfast the next morning. The dining room was much more tense than usual – Si was still acclimating to Altea (they’d had to dim the lights for him, and the food was quite a bit different from what was on the Balmera), Joshua and North seemed to be… not arguing, but not on completely friendly terms, either, and Markus seemed very still, like he was trying to block out everything around him. Alice, of course, was very happy that she got to eat with the adults, and Connor…

“Sorry I’m late,” Connor said as he entered the room. His voice was scratchy and his eyes were red. Clearly he’d spent a long time crying, though he hadn’t been doing so as much lately.

“Don’t worry, there’s still plenty of food left,” Luther said, giving him a sympathetic smile. He couldn’t imagine what it would be like to leave both Kara and Alice unexpectedly for ten years while on an unfamiliar planet.

“Thanks.” Connor smiled back before taking his seat and beginning to eat.

Kara gave Luther a questioning look. They’d already decided last night what they were going to do about the Voltron situation, and they’d told Alice that they would be making an announcement about something at breakfast, but now for the actual timing of it all… he didn’t want to rush Connor in eating, but he had a feeling that if they waited too long, Si or Markus might excuse themselves early and not be present for the announcement. Luckily, it looked like Connor wasn’t too interested in breakfast. He made a mental note to make sure they had some snacks around later in the morning in case Connor was hungry then.

He gave Kara an affirmative nod. She tapped her glass a couple times with her spoon, causing the conversation to cease, and stood up. “I know yesterday’s events were unprecedented,” she began, “And I would also like to apologize for the interruptions in our diplomatic meeting.”

North offered a smile and nod.

“But we cannot control when the Voltron lions choose their new paladins, and the lions have decided that now is the time. Before we announce our further plans, I would first like to honor Si, North, and Joshua, who have been chosen as paladins of the yellow, red, and green lions.”

Si looked quite shy at that, while North and Joshua both looked very proud of themselves.

“That leaves the blue and black lions,” Kara explained.

Luther glanced between Markus and Connor, knowing what was coming next after his conversation with Kara last night.

“We’ve tracked the blue lion’s signal back to planet Earth.”

Both of them froze.

“In order to retrieve the lion, we’ll be preparing the castleship for launch starting immediately. We’ll be able to take Markus and Connor back to Earth, and we’d also like the other paladins to be with us so that they can begin training and working as a team, and be ready to have the blue lion’s paladin join them.”

Markus got up and left. He looked… tense, like he was about to explode.

“What do you mean by ‘castleship?’” Connor asked.

“The castle is also a ship,” Joshua said in an annoyed tone, while also glancing between the remaining group at the table and the door that Markus had just left through.

Connor glanced around at everyone else. “Am I the only one who didn’t know that?”

“Making sure the schematics of the castleship and other intelligence about the Altean forces didn’t fall into the hands of the Empire was one of the Blade of Marmora’s main goals during the war,” North explained.

“The castleship was one of the first things I knew about the Alteans,” Si explained. “It’s in every Balmeran story that involves the Alteans.”

“So what you’re saying,” Connor said, “Is that this castle was also a ship for the past  _ ten years _ ?!”

Luther made eye contact with Kara and nodded towards Alice. Kara gave him a nod before addressing Connor. “When it was powered by the green lion, the castleship wasn’t stable enough to fly…”

Luther went around to the other side of the table “Let’s go,” he whispered to Alice. She nodded, following him out into the hallway.

“Are we all going to go?” Alice asked.

He shook his head. “Your mother and I don’t think it’s safe enough for our whole family to go, but we know that you might want to, and that you’re old enough that it would be appropriate for you to come along. If you’d like to come with, I will accompany you, but your mother will stay here.”

She chewed on her bottom lip. “Why isn’t it safe enough? We all went in the ship yesterday, when we went to the Balmera.”

“In the outer parts of the universe, where Earth is, there are many dangers,” he explained. “There are some Galra who still profess their loyalty to the Empire, as well as pirates that are trying to make money in ways that aren’t good.”

“Like by stealing?”

“Yes, like that,” he said hurriedly, trying to avoid the fact that stealing wasn’t the worst of their crimes.

“I want to come with,” Alice said. “But… there’ll still be a way for us to talk to mother, right?”

He nodded. “Yes, we’ll be able to see her over the datapad every day. And you’ll still have to keep up with your schoolwork.”

“I will! I promise! I have to go get Timothy from my room and tell him that we’re going to go to  _ Earth _ ! He’s going to be so excited to be the first fox to go there!” She ran off.

Smiling at her enthusiasm, he went back to the dining room. Kara was alone. “Where is everyone?” Luther asked.

“I told Connor to go cool down, Joshua went to find Markus, and North and Si both needed to send messages about where they’ll be.” She ran her fingers through her hair before resting her forehead in the palm of her hand. “Luther… I didn’t think this would go so poorly. I thought Connor and Markus would be so excited! But now Connor is angry, and I don’t even know what Markus is feeling or why he walked out like that…”

“You’re doing the best you can. We’re in one of the worst situations in Altean history; of course it’s going to seem like you’re failing.”

Kara nodded. “What did Alice say?” she asked.

“She said she wants to come with.”

“Of course she would.” Kara sighed. “What am I going to do, all alone? I’ve always had you and Joshua, but now…”

“It will be different, but not being able to hold Joshua like we used to was different, too,” Luther said, taking her hands, “But we  _ will  _ see each other, every day.”

“It won’t be the same.”

“When have our lives ever been?”

“You’re right,” she said, pressing a kiss to his lips. “Let’s go deal with the launch preparations; we can deal with everyone else later.”

* * *

Damian blinked, being drawn out of their sleep by two voices.  _ Wait… why is my bed so hard? And why is it so sandy?  _ They moved to get up, but winced as soon as they put weight on their ankle.  _ What happened? _

“Finally, you’re awake!” Emily said, offering her hand. They took it, letting her help them stand up off the floor.

Cole and Emma stood in front of a bulletin board, discussing something.  _ Wait… Emma? _

“Last night, when we were running after that bike,” Emily explained quickly, in a hushed voice, “It got kind of difficult because of the earthquake. You tripped over a rock, so Cole and I started yelling. It was Emma on the bike. This is where she’s been living, apparently.”

“That’s a lot,” Damian said. “So did the three of you stay up all night, or…?”

“They both slept. I wasn’t tired.”

“So this star chart,” Cole said, pointing to a picture on the bulletin board, “Shows what the sky looks like recently,  _ and  _ around the time that Con – er, Officer Anderson and Officer Manfred disappeared.”

“Yeah,” Emma said. “The cave isn’t far by bike, but you can only really fit two people on my bike comfortably, so by foot it’ll take… probably a few hours?”

“I bet there’d be some great views from the back of your bike,” Cole said, messing with the zipper of his jacket.

“I’m sorry, are they planning on investigating some sort of conspiracy theory about how Anderson and Manfred disappeared, or are they planning a date? Because I honestly can’t tell right now,” Damian whispered to Emily, not being able to stand watching Cole and Emma any longer. Mainly because of Emma.

“Okay, so are we going to go down to the cave?” Emily asked pointedly.

“Yeah!” Cole said, smiling in a way that put butterflies in their stomach. “Damian could take the bike – he’s the best pilot I know, he’d be good at that – and, uh… I could go with? Maybe?”

Damian looked down at the floor, drawing circles in the sand with their foot, wanting to disappear.

“Emma, why are you looking at me like that?” Cole asked.

“Damian beat my simulator score?” Emma asked, sounding surprised.

“Wait… what simulator score?”

“You know, the piloting simulator? That has the scoreboard hanging over it? That I got my name on before I got expelled?”

“Well that’s a fucking stupid place to put a scoreboard, who’d notice it there?” Cole asked quickly, trying to cover for himself. “Like, if the simulator was outside, I could see that – everybody looks up while they’re outside!” He clicked his fingers together frustratedly.

“We should head outside – there’s only so much daylight, so we’ll need to get going soon,” Emma said, the wooden planks creaking under her feet as she walked towards the door.

Everything Emma and Cole were saying went in one ear and out the other.  _ He’s the best pilot I know _ . Damian  _ knew  _ that was supposed to be a compliment, but it still stung. Drawing in a shaky breath, they interrupted. “Wait.”

Everyone looked at them.

They glanced over at Emily, who seemed to have figured out what they were going to do. She gave them a supportive smile. “Actually, I’m not a boy. Or a girl. I’m nonbinary, and my pronouns are they/them.”

“Sorry,” Cole said, smiling in an awkward-yet-hot sort of way.

“It’s –“ they were about to say “it’s fine”, but it really wasn’t. “Thanks,” they said instead. “And also, I’m not the best pilot, either – I definitely didn’t beat your score, Emma. Officer Manfred –  _ he  _ was the best pilot.”

Surprisingly, Emma gave them a nod at that. “Let’s go – it controls similarly to the Garrison ships, so you shouldn’t have a problem controlling it. The main thing that you’ll need to get used to is balance – especially with the extra weight –“ she shot a look at Cole “—but you’ll probably think it’s easy, once you get used to it.”

Outside, the sun was glaringly bright and hot. Damian only barely touched one of the handles before pulling their hand back.

“Try using these,” Emma said, taking off her gloves.

“Thanks,” Damian said, slipping them on.

“You’ll also want to keep the sand out of your face,” she explained, pulling out a pair of goggles from a pouch in the belt around her waist, as well as handing them a damp bandana that she must’ve brought from inside. “And since you’re not driving,  _ you’ll  _ be playing navigator,” she said, handing a map to Cole. “You’re lucky I keep extras around.” She handed him another pair of goggles and a bandana. “If you two get lost, just cut the engine out and yell. Desert’s quiet, so we’ll hear you. Same goes if there’s an earthquake – please don’t try to run around like last time.” She took a step back from the bike, then seemed to remember something. “Oh, and I threw the climbing gear into your backpack, Cole, since the two of you will get there first. The cave goes straight down, like a climbing wall. If Cole goes down first, he should be able to hoist the harness back up to you, Damian, so you don’t hurt your ankle.”

“ _ Come on _ , haven’t you told them enough?” Emily asked.

Emma sighed. “I guess… have fun!”

And then they were flying. Well, it was more like hovering, and instead of being strapped into a pilot’s chair, Cole had wrapped his arms around Damian’s waist, but – the  _ feeling  _ was like flying. Especially knowing that it was Cole sitting behind them, tapping on their shoulder or pointing every so often as they navigated the desert.  _ I could do this forever. _

__


	7. Taking Flight

Si squinted as he entered the bridge of the castleship with the other paladins, the Altean king, the Little One, and Markus and Connor. “Can we turn the lights down?” he asked. He’d had a lot of ideas about what it would be like in places other than the Balmera, but he never imagined that they’d be so _bright_.

“Alice? Can you get that?” King Luther asked, stepping up to the platform in the center of the room.

The Little One ran over to a panel near the door and pressed her hand against it, causing the lights to dim.

“Thank you,” Si said.

”The chairs are traditionally for the paladins,” King Luther explained. “North, you sit in that chair, across the room from Joshua, and Si, you’re behind him. Markus, Connor… just find somewhere to sit.”

“Can I fly the castleship?” the Little One asked.

“I don’t think you’re tall enough for that, Little One,” Si said.

“You haven’t even started on the simulator yet,” King Luther said. A blue light glowed around him before two pillars arose from the platform. He set his hands on top of them, causing the screens in the room to come to life. “Can someone take Alice in their lap?” he asked. Markus and Connor had taken the last of the five seats.

“Sure,” Si said, opening his arms to take her.

The Queen’s face appeared on the large screen at the front of the room. “Good luck,” she told them. “I’m sure you’ll all do great.”

A screen appeared in front of Si, displaying what he assumed were things related to the castleship, but he honestly had no idea. He glanced around at the others, who each gave updates to various systems as they tapped on the screens. Clearly, they all had _some_ understanding of what was in front of them. What he did understand was the view outside, how the Altean landscape fell away as they lifted off. Then they were going through the clouds, and then – then they were out of the atmosphere completely, with only the lights of stars and other planets around them.

“Father, can we go to other parts of the castleship now?” the Little One asked.

“Yes, we shouldn’t have any problems now,” the King said.

The Little One jumped off of Si’s lap and started tugging on his hand. “Come on!” she whispered. “I have something to show you!”

He followed her off the bridge and down a few corridors, the lights dimming automatically as they came along.

“Here!” The Little One said, stopping in front of a seemingly random door. She pressed her palm against the scanner to open it.

A fat creature with short purple and red fur lumbered out. Well, maybe “lumbered” wasn’t _quite_ the right word, as it only came up to about Si’s knees, but the way that it moved like it was meant to be so much bigger than it actually was made it absolutely adorable.

“This is Serenity,” The Little One explained, scratching behind the two tiny lumps on the creature’s head that Si assumed were ears. “She’s my pet klanmuirl.”

Si glanced into the room Serenity had come out of. It was refreshingly dark, but was filled with shelves containing spares of all sorts of items Si had seen around the castleship. “Is this the proper habitat for a… klanmuirl?” he asked, not quite getting the hang of the unfamiliar word on his tongue.

The Little One shook her head.

“You didn’t bring Serenity onto the ship without telling your parents, did you?” Si asked.

“…They said I couldn’t bring her, that she needs to live outside, but she’d be lonely without me!”

“I think you should really tell your father about this,” Si said. “We’re far enough from Altea now that I don’t think he’ll turn the ship around over this, but there must be a better place on the castleship for her to go.”

The Little One nodded, pouting a little. “… I guess you’re right. I’ll tell him later, when he’s not still piloting.”

Serenity lumbered out of the Little One’s reach. Stretching, she rubbed her neck against Si’s leg.

“Look! She wants to be friends!” The Little One said excitedly. “She’s hugging you!”

Si knelt down and scratched behind the klanmuirl’s ear the way the Little One had. “She is pretty cute,” he admitted as Serenity made a noise that fell somewhere between a sound of pleasure and a yawn.

“I knew you’d like her!”

* * *

“We’re almost there,” Emma said, trying to ignore the sweat accumulating… well, everywhere. “Just a little climbing and we’ll be at the entrance..”

“We have to climb those cliffs? In this heat?” Emily asked, attempting to roll up the bottom of her shirt, which was plastered to her stomach. They’d both taken off their jackets hours ago.

“That’s why I started living like the animals out here… sleeping during the day, going out at night… unless I need to go to town and help someone out in exchange for supplies.”

“That sounds…” Emma prepared for her to say something along the lines of “dangerous”, like one of her old middle school teachers had when she’d gone to her for the paper she’d traced the star charts on, or “cool”, like the mechanic’s assistant who sometimes let her borrow a spare part or two. “… romantic.”

“Romantic?”

“Yeah. Like one of those books we read in English?”

“Didn’t think you were into literature.”

“I’m not. Half those books are boring, anyways. Like, who wants to read about some dead guy living out in the woods by himself? I’d die if I had to do that, with no one to talk to. But if you had someone else out there with you… well, at least something would _happen_ in those books.” She paused for a split-second. “And _I_ didn’t think you thought about me.”

Emma looked away, feeling her cheeks heat up.

“You’re blushing.”

“It’s a sunburn,” she said without thinking.

“ _Okay_ , then.”

They fell into silence as they got to a steeper part of the desert terrain. Emma reached the top first, having made the climb more times than she could count. “Here, take my hand,” she said, reaching out to Emily. Groaning a little at the extra weight, she tugged as hard as she could, until Emily was standing at the top of the ledge, next to her. “Careful, the entrance is right here.”

Emily peered down into the cave, still holding her hand. “That looks like it’s a long way down,” she said.

“Trust me, it feels a lot shorter when you’re going down… and a lot higher when you’re climbing back up.” The rope was secured to a rock near the entrance, but the bike was nowhere to be seen. “Damian and Cole must’ve taken the bike down with them.”

“That sounds fun… well, maybe not with Cole, he gets motion sick…”

“That sounds rough.” She reluctantly let go of Emily’s hand and pulled the rope up, revealing the harness attached to the other end. “Okay, do you want to –“ She felt a slight tremble beneath her feet. Instinctively, she looked up at the larger rocks around the hole – she assumed that they’d come lose when the thing that had made this hole crashed – and realized that they could easily come crashing down. Especially if any of them had come loose from ten years of earthquakes.

“Damian and Cole are in there,” Emily said, sounding more confident than Emma felt. “We have to do something.”

“The cave goes a lot farther out than this opening. They should be fine, as long as they get away from this cavern.”

“Did you tell them that?” Emily asked.

“…No.”

“Then we have to go in.” Emily picked up the harness and began to strap it on.

“We are not doing that,” Emma said.

“Yes, we are. So help me.”

“Okay. I’ll let the rope down little by little. Tell me if you need me to do it faster or slower, or if you need me to stop because you’re going to run into something, or –"

“Okay, I got it, let’s go,” Emily said, the tremors growing stronger.

Emma swore her heart was going to beat out of her chest as Emily disappeared down into the hole, the rope in Emma’s hands the only thing connecting them to each other.

“I’m out of the harness! You can bring it back up now!”

She let out a breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding before bringing the rope back up and fastening herself in. “Watch out!” she shouted as a warning before jumping down. She winced as her rear end hit the cold, hard ground.

“Sorry,” Emily said. “I wanted to catch you, but…”

“Please don’t. That would probably be worse.” Still, she couldn’t help but blush again.

As the tremors grew into full-on rumbles, they heard the distinct sound of loosening rocks from above. Emily started running out of the cavern, Emma following behind, until she felt a tug at her waist. “Emily!” she shouted as she stopped. Deciding it would be quicker to take off the harness, she started working at the various buckles, her hands suddenly feeling more damp with sweat than they’d felt earlier in the sun.

“Here, I’ll help,” Emily said, appearing at her side.

“No! I’ve got it,” Emma said. She didn’t want anyone else’s hands there. After undoing the final buckle, she dropped the harness to the ground and stepped out of it. “Let’s go.”

“Damian!” Emily shouted as they ran through the tunnel.

“Emily?!”

As they rounded the curve, Damian and Cole came into view. Damian was pacing back and forth, their footprints ingrained into the sand at their feet, while Cole was still sitting on the bike, alternating between tugging at his hair and clicking his fingers together nervously.

Before any of them could say anything, they heard a loud boom, and the ground beneath them shook violently.


	8. The Black Paladins

Markus sat in a chair on the bridge, gazing out at the stars around the castleship. They’d agreed that the best plan would be to put the ship on autopilot overnight, then perform a jump via wormhole to Earth’s solar system in the morning, when they’d all be refreshed and ready to face any threats they might find there… which would’ve been the perfect plan, if Markus could actually sleep. He was plenty tired, but fears about what would happen when they got back to Earth plagued his mind, and he didn’t want to keep Josh up with his restless tossing and turning.

The doors to the bridge slid open behind him. Turning around, he was surprised to see Alice walk in. Her nightgown and the scarf around her hair were both a bit rumpled – she clearly hadn’t had a great time sleeping. She padded over to where Markus was sitting, her slippers masking the sounds of her feet against the floor, but not enough for the sound to be completely invisible to Markus.

“What are you doing up?” Markus asked. “You should be in bed.”

“I had this dream,” Alice started to explain. “Where I was playing with Chloe and Lucy.”

Markus couldn’t remember her mentioning friends with those names, but maybe he’d just forgotten.

“We played dress-up together – there were clothes in every color, except not orange for some reason -- and then we went outside and played – but outside was really weird. It looked like the Balmera, but there weren’t any crystals, and there were all these really tiny rocks on the ground – so tiny that when I picked them up, I couldn’t count them as they fell out of my hands between my fingers.”

_ Like… sand? I haven’t seen that since Earth… and I’ve never seen any on Altea… _

“Then I got to fly a simulator! Chloe talked into the radio, and Lucy fixed the engine when it broke.”

_ The Altean simulators are only set up for two people – the pilot and the navigator. But it sounds like she’s talking about the simulator at the Garrison… _

“And then we played with a klanmuirl! Except he had really fluffy brown and white fur, and big, droopy ears. Then he licked my face, and left slobber all over it!” She giggled at the memory. “Chloe and Lucy told me it was like a kiss.”

_ That sounds like a dog.  _ “What happened next?” he asked, trying to keep the concern out of his voice at the mention of all of those things from Earth that she had literally never seen or experienced.

“Then they showed me something, but they said I had to keep it a surprise.”

“Who’s the surprise for?”

“You!” Alice said. “So you need to go to sleep, so you can see it!”

“Is it… a good surprise?” Markus asked.

Alice nodded excitedly.

“I’ll try,” Markus said, feeling like he was missing something. Maybe this was all some really elaborate joke? “But you need to go to bed, too.”

“Fine,” she said.

The two walked together until Markus reached his and Josh’s room. He slipped in, hoping he could be quiet enough that he wouldn’t wake Josh. After getting ready for bed, he joined Josh under the covers. He found that his mind was much less restless than it had been before, and quickly found himself drifting off.

He woke up to tears in his eyes. Wiping them away, he blinked and looked around. He was in a room on the castleship, but it wasn’t his own – it was Connor’s, though Connor was nowhere to be seen. That is, until he looked down at his hand, and quickly realized that  _ he  _ was… being Connor?  _ This is a weird dream.  _ He ignored the strange feeling of that realization, instead opening his fist, where he could feel a piece of paper poking into his skin. Uncrumpling the scrap, it took a minute for him to realize what it was – part of the picture Connor had brought with him on that flight. The only thing he really had from Earth. He started crying again, the room disappearing in the blur of his tears.

A loud boom emitted that he felt in the rock under his feet more than he heard it. He recognized the surface of the Balmera, but where there had been many large, sparkling crystals when he’d visited, the terrain was barren. A large Galra cruiser – like the one where the Red Lion had been housed – slowly descended onto the Balmera’s surface. Balmerans ran everywhere, the children and elderly being ushered into the caves while the middle-aged people stood between the cave entrances and the Galra cruiser. “Come on, Si!” a Balmeran child shouted, sounding terrified. He grabbed the child’s hand, and the two of them ran, the Balmera disappearing into darkness.

He was in the castleship’s library, a book lying open in front of him that detailed… something about Altean shapeshifting abilities. It looked like some of the more advanced parts, things that, to his knowledge, only Josh could do. Then he heard voices as two people entered the library – a younger Kara and Luther, still practically children. Then a thought struck him.  _ If I’m Josh… and only reading about and practicing advanced shapeshifting now… Kara and Luther might not know. And I don’t want to hear his deadname unless he’s the one telling it to me.  _ He closed the book and took it with him as he slipped away among the shelves, looking for some way to prevent Kara and Luther from calling out to him. Spotting a set of curtains framing an alcove, he hid, waiting to end up in a different place.

It was dark, but not completely – there was a slit along one wall, allowing a purple glow to enter the room. It was enough for him to make out the other figures – were those Echo and Ripple? – but not enough for him to truly see anything. Then he heard something – a rhythmic beat, like a group of people walking by, outside of this place. Pressing his hand against the cold wall, he felt his way over to the slit, and attempted to peer out. With how small the hole was, he couldn’t see a thing. He sunk back down to the floor, hoping someone would come and save him, because he sure didn’t know how to get out of this. Not without potentially bringing harm to Echo and Ripple.

Then he was in space, floating among the stars. Realizing that he didn’t have a helmet, a tether, something to propel himself with,  _ anything  _ – he began to panic.

“Take my hand,” a woman said as she appeared in front of him, her hand extended.

He nodded, putting his hand in hers.

“Oops,” another woman said as she appeared. “Maybe we shouldn’t have set the scene like that…” She blinked a couple times, and suddenly a rocky ground that reminded him of Earth’s moon appeared under their feet. “Is that better?”

He nodded, and the woman holding his hand let go. “My name is Lucy,” she said, “And this is Chloe.”

“My name is Markus,” he said, though he somehow felt that these two ethereal women in glimmering gold knew that already.

“You’re wondering why you’re here, and what that was, and who we are, and just what in the world is going on,” Chloe said.

That answered his previous question. “Yes.”

“When Voltron first came to be,” Lucy explained, “The five lions and their paladins lived harmoniously. However, one of them – the paladin of the black lion – secretly wanted more. Some say his quintessence was unstable or imbalanced, but this wasn’t true. He was simply greedy.”

_ I don’t think Josh ever mentioned this… _

“No, he probably wouldn’t,” Chloe said.

Markus startled, forgetting that she could read his thoughts.

“Voltron was the universe’s only hope during the war. Discussing this part of the paladins’ history could have been interpreted as siding with the Galra Empire. Now that the war is over… we hope that the children of the universe will learn Voltron’s full history, and that people will be allowed to speak about and criticize it freely.”

“When the first black paladin was defeated,” Lucy continued, “Was when we came to be. Five trials await every potential paladin of the black lion, in order to prevent corruption from entering Voltron again. From Voltron’s limbs, it can be easily removed, but from Voltron’s head, it is not so easy.”

_ But I’ve only done four trials, and I think I failed all of them. _

“Then let’s start the fifth one!” Chloe said happily.

“The leader of the paladins requires a distinct set of traits, just as every other paladin does. They must be responsible and trustworthy, because the other paladins, as well as their loved ones, will all rely on them. They must be humble, because the goal of Voltron is to bring harmony to all, not glory to one. Most importantly, they must know their fellow paladins, and themself.” Lucy took his hands again. “We want to put our faith in you by allowing you to be the paladin of the black lion.”

“But there’s a  _ slight  _ problem,” Chloe said. “It seems like you don’t understand your own quintessence.”

_ My what? _

“Oh, sorry! Quintessence is the stuff that makes you who you are, that makes you alive. Everyone has slightly different quintessence, though there are often groups of people who have very similar quintessence.”

_ So… there’s something different about my type of quintessence? Would that explain… if you felt different from other people, in some way that you couldn’t figure out? _

“Yes, it would,” Lucy said. “Markus, some Earthlings have a name for your type of quintessence, because even though they don’t understand what quintessence is, they do have an understanding of the differences between types. People with that type of quintessence call themselves autistic.”

_ Wait… I think I’ve heard that before… like Connor’s son? But… I wasn’t anything like him when I was a kid. I don’t think he’s anything like me now. _

“No one has  _ identical  _ quintessence, only  _ similar  _ quintessence.”

Chloe’s eyes suddenly widened. “Your boyfriend is going to wake up soon,” she said. “We should let you return so you can tell him about everything.”

“If you ever need us, for any reason,” Lucy said, “We’ll be there. All you have to do is ask the black lion to bring you here.”

Markus blinked, finally finding himself in the bed he’d actually lied down in. Next to him, Josh groaned a little as he stretched. Markus pushed himself upright. “Morning.”

“Well, we don’t exactly have a morning out here, but… you must be tired. I must have been asleep by the time you got to bed.”

_ You have no idea.  _ He half-expected Josh to answer that, but this wasn’t a… dream? Alternate dimension? Domain of goddesses? He had no idea how to explain it. “I’m the paladin of the black lion,” he said instead.

“What?” Josh asked, raising his eyebrows. “But… the paladin of the black lion is always the last to be chosen… and we don’t even know who the blue lion’s paladin is yet!”

“If you’d grab my legs for me, we can go down to the hangars – the black lion is definitely there. And Connor is the paladin of the blue lion.”

* * *

“Are we there yet?” Emily asked as she saw that one rock with the funny crack in it  _ again _ . She trusted Emma, but… it really did seem like they were lost.

“I really thought I heard water coming from this way,” Emma said defeatedly.

“Can we just stop  _ somewhere  _ pretty soon?” Damian asked. “My ankle’s feeling fine now, but… I don’t want to hurt it more by walking on it too much.”

“Too bad I don’t have my dog with me,” Cole said. “He’d figure out where to go – he’s the most reliable person I know.”

“Great, thanks for the compliment!” Emma said sarcastically.

A purring sound filled Emily’s ears. “Uh… do you guys hear that?”

“Hear what?” Damian asked.

“That sound…” The purring started again. “Like that.”

“What is it supposed to sound like?” Cole asked.

“It’s purring, but really deep, like it’s coming from a giant cat,” she explained. Suddenly, the sight of a tunnel intersection they’d passed appeared in her mind. “I think we need to go back… there’s a different tunnel we need to go through.”

The others followed. As they came to the intersection she’d seen, she glanced up at the ceiling of the cave. While the height of it gradually decreased in the direction they’d just come from, it stayed at a higher height down the other path.  _ A big cat would need a high ceiling, right? _

She got an affirmative meow.

“You all heard that, right?” she asked. Turning around, she saw only looks of surprise or confusion on their faces. “Right?”

“I don’t know what you’re hearing, but I think going this way would be better than walking in circles for hours,” Damian said. “Sorry, Emma.”

Emma and Cole both seemed to agree, so they continued walking.

Eventually, they reached a large chamber. A giant, mechanical blue lion sat within it, surrounded by a spherical blue something with a tessellating geometric pattern.

“Does anyone else feel like the lion is… looking at them?” Emily asked, stepping to the side and watching as the glint in the lion’s eyes seemed to track her movement.

“That’s supposed to be a lion?” Cole asked.

“Yeah,” Damian said. “Those four things on the ground are the paws, and then there’s the body, and at the top’s the head. Those yellow things are supposed to be eyes, I think.”

“Oh, I got it. Kinda. Thanks,” Cole said.

Emily approached the lion. Pressing her hand against the barrier between the lion and herself, she felt the thrum of energy as it ran against her fingers. It almost tickled.

“I had no idea this was here,” Emma said, stepping up to Emily’s side. “Do you think there’s a way to get closer?”

“Maybe,” Emily said, “We just have to knock.” She made her hand into a fist and knocked twice.

The barrier came down. She swore she saw a glint in the lion’s eyes, and then – then the lion began to lower her head to the ground. Emily stepped back, hearing a gasp next to her from Emma as she did the same.

As the lion’s head reached the ground, she opened her mouth, revealing a tunnel inside. A ramp came out to give them easier access to the inside of her mouth, almost like a tongue.

“Are we supposed to… go inside it? Like we’re getting eaten?” Cole asked.

“It looks like a machine. I don’t think it’s going to eat us!” Emily said, walking towards the ramp.

“If you say so.”


	9. Some Assembly Required

After a good night’s sleep – well,  _ North  _ had slept well for being on an Altean ship; she had no idea how everyone else had slept – they all gathered on the bridge to prepare for the wormhole jump. Luther was telling Alice what a couple of the ship’s controls did, Joshua and Markus had started holding hands when they thought no one would notice, and Si was trying to cheer Connor up. North had no idea why the news that he was the paladin of the blue lion had saddened him, but Si seemed to have gotten a small smile out of him, which was good enough for her.

“All initial system checks passed,” Luther announced. “Everyone get in your seats, and then we’ll be able to wormhole.” After the other paladins and Alice had sat down, he began a countdown, while the glowing blue wormhole grew in size in front of the ship. When he reached zero, the ship began moving slowly forward into what looked like a field of stars.

When they reached the other side, everyone seemed to visibly relax – until North spotted a hulking space vessel in the distance.

“What’s that?” Alice asked.

“Zlatko,” North said, turning to face the girl when she noticed how Luther seemed to tense at the name. “He was –“

“A commander of the Galra Empire,” Joshua finished.

North shook her head. “Not just  _ any  _ commander. He was the closest to the emperor – literally. The Altean forces defeated him in the second to last battle of the war. Due to his failure, the emperor banished him to the outer rim of the empire.”

“Is it just me, or is his ship getting closer to us?” Markus asked.

North turned her attention back to the ship. It was definitely closer… and showed every glowing purple indicator that the ship was still active. “It’s coming closer – and it looks like it’s still manned.”

“Paladins, head to your lions!” Luther’s voice boomed out.

Suddenly, everyone was running.

“Follow me!” Joshua called out, leading them to a door that North hadn’t noticed before. “There’s ziplines here that lead to all the lions’ hangars.”

“I can’t reach them!” Alice said. Turning around, North and the others noticed that she’d followed them out of the bridge.

“Alice, what are you doing here?!” Joshua asked, panicked.

“Father  _ said _ that the paladins were supposed to go to their lions, and I’m a paladin, too – right, Markus?”

“Princess,” Markus said, “We might be under attack right now, and I don’t think your father would be too happy with us if we let you come with. But later, sometime, I can take you out in the lion with me – okay? It’ll be just like when I’d let you come fly with me on Altea.”

“Okay,” she said defeatedly, just in time for Connor to show up.

“Princess!” he said. “Your father told me to take you elsewhere in the ship, but then we noticed you were gone – what are you four all still standing there for?!”

“Right, the lions,” North said, grabbing the handle of the zipline descending into a tunnel of red lights. They blurred by her as she descended down, her body feeling weightless, just like when the red lion had first chosen her – but this time she dropped down into a small ground vehicle that drove along some sort of track and up a ramp into the lion’s belly, depositing her into the pilot’s seat inside the lion’s head.

“Whenever you’re ready, you can leave the hangar,” Luther said, his face appearing on the lion’s dashboard. “And I’d prefer that to be sooner rather than later, so I can get the shields up.”

The red lion seemed to be just as eager as North to get to the Galra ship and find out  _ what  _ was going on.

“Hold on,” Markus said over the comms. “Luther, what do you want us to do? Because as much as we’ve prepared to defend ourselves,  _ they aren’t attacking _ .”

“Wait,” Luther said. “I’m attempting to make contact with their ship now. If they don’t respond, I’m going to have you surround the ship with your lions. If they take our signal as a provocation, be prepared to fight.”

“ _ How _ ?” Si asked, sounding scared.

“Yeah, some of us didn’t exactly go to flight school,” Joshua added.

“If the time comes, just follow my lead,” Markus said, sounding more confident than North would’ve been if  _ she  _ was leading a group half-comprised of inexperienced flyers.

“They’ve sent a ping back,” Luther announced. “Stay where you are – I’m going to attempt negotiating with them.”

* * *

Damian stared in shock and surprise as the four of them entered the head of the lion. The inside was clearly a ship, with a large control panel, a chair for the pilot, and a view out the front of the lion, where its eyes were.

“I know how we can get out of here,” Emily said. “Damian, Emma, one of you just needs to pilot this!”

“But wait, aren’t there…” Cole’s voice trailed off as Emily nudged Damian into the pilot’s seat.

“Go on, try it!”

Knowing Emily wouldn’t stop pestering them if they didn’t at least  _ try _ , Damian sat down and looked at the controls. Nothing was labelled, but it looked similar enough to the Garrison simulators that they were sure they wouldn’t have a problem with it. They started hitting the buttons for the start-up sequence, and… nothing. No engine roar, no indicator lights,  _ nothing _ . They went through the sequence again. Still nothing. For good measure, they tried revving the engine thrusters. “It’s not working.”

“Maybe it’s been down here a long time, and needs maintenance?” Emma suggested. “I mean, it’s not like we have any tools, but we can at least  _ try  _ to figure out what the problem is.”

“There’s a door back here,” Cole pointed out. “The lion’s gotta be a lot bigger than this room – we should probably look in there.”

“We should also look for any supplies, because I’m guessing we’ll be spending at least tonight here,” Emma added. “I’ll go through that door and look around.” It slid open with just a touch, and stayed open as she left the room.

“Maybe we should try touching other flat surfaces like that, see if they open up into anything,” Emily said, running a hand along a flat part of the control panel. Suddenly, a door opened up from it, a mass of cables springing out. “Like that!”

Damian stepped forward to help her untangle them, having to stare for a moment at some of the stranger-looking plugs on the ends, like one that was star-shaped.

“You should tell Cole how you feel,” Emily said in a low voice.

Damian glanced behind them to where Cole was running a hand along one of the walls. “Keep it down, he’s right there,” they whispered.

“But you do like him, right?” Emily asked in an excited whisper.

“Yeah, I guess I do.” It was like those words were the key to opening up a set of floodgates.  _ What if he doesn’t like me and we’re trapped here forever… What if he did but something went wrong and we were trapped here together but hated each other… What if we run out of food and water and everything eventually and one of us dies… _

“Hey, I found something!” Cole shouted, putting a stop to Damian’s racing thoughts. “There’s Capri Sun pouches in here,” he said, holding up a silver pouch with a straw attached to it. Something was written on it in characters that Damian had never seen before, alongside a teardrop symbol.

“Yes! I bet Emma will be glad we found something!” Emily took one of the pouches and stabbed it with the straw before taking a drink. Her expression slowly became more and more confused. “This isn’t juice…”

_ Great, we’re now going to die from food poisoning or something. _

“What does it taste like?” Cole asked.

“…Nothing.”

“Wait, like water?” Damian asked.

“That must be it! I was just expecting it to taste like something, so when it didn’t…” Emily shrugged sheepishly.

“There’s also some bowls in here, and a hose,” Cole continued.

“Wait… but if there’s water in the pouches… then what’s supposed to come out of the hose?” Damian asked.

“I’m not sure.” Cole picked up one of the bowls and aimed the hose into it, squeezing a bit, but nothing happened.

“Is there a button or a lever or something in there?” Emily asked.

Cole felt his hand inside the compartment. “I’m not feeling anything…”

The hose seemed to move of its own accord, and a ball of something green and gooey shot out of it and landed on the floor.

“What in the world?” Emily asked. She knelt down to look at it, but more goo shot out of the hose. She backed away just in time. “Cole, can you turn that off?”

“I’ll try… but I have no idea how I even turned this on in the first place…” Cole went back to searching through the compartment.

“Too bad there’s not a flight manual or something,” Damian said. “Not like it would be very helpful, even if there was… it would probably just be in the same language as what’s on the water pouches.”

“I mean, we could try to translate it?” Emily pulled out her phone and held it up. “Nope, still no signal.” Their phones had been one of the first things they’d tried after the entrance to the cavern had gotten blocked. Then she glanced at the mess of cables. “Wait – Cole, your laptop’s in your backpack, right?”

“Yeah…” he slipped it off and handed it to her. “Why?”

“We’ve got a ton of cables here, so there should be  _ something  _ that plugs in. Once we do that, maybe we can download a manual or something.”

Damian nodded, glad that she seemed to have some sort of plan. “So we just need to find a USB cable or something…”

“Yep! I’ll look for that. Damian, why don’t you try figuring out how to turn off the goo, and Cole, you can start pulling the water out of there? Maybe see if there’s some cleaning supplies or something?”

“Cleaning supplies?” Cole asked as he moved over to let Damian help.

“I don’t think any of us want to sleep on goo tonight.”

Some time later, Damian somehow got the goo turned off, Cole had emptied out the compartment only to find more water pouches, and Emily had finally found the right cable.

“Let’s see what we can do,” Cole said, turning the laptop on and plugging it in. The three of them held their breaths as he clicked on the icon for an unknown device… and let it out with a groan as files with names in the unfamiliar language popped up. “We can’t even open them,” he complained, the computer giving an error message about not having a program associated with the file type.

Footsteps approached from behind them. “So I checked out the lion’s belly,” Emma said. “It’s a big, empty space – not much in there, except for a lever that opens a door to go out the bottom. But we should have plenty of room to spread out when we go to bed… which we should do pretty soon.” Then she glanced around the room, at the laptop surrounded by cables, the goo that had somehow gotten all over  _ everything _ , and the pile of water pouches. “What  _ happened  _ in here?”

* * *

The inhabitants of the ship were not, in fact, Galra – at least, not as far as Luther could tell. “So Zlatko was conducting… experiments? On you?”

“Not exactly ‘on’ us, more like he created us from them,” the Jerry stood in front of him explained, somehow still smiling as he talked about what sounded like torture.

“Do you know what he was trying to do?” North asked. Her and the other paladins had returned to the ship after escorting a small spacecraft from the Galra vessel that carried one of its inhabitants – who was apparently connected to all the others, in some way.

The Jerry shook his head. “He talked a lot about dreams, and dashed hopes, and how he’d wanted to be an emperor someday… but we’re not sure what our exact purpose was supposed to be.”

North looked thoughtful. “So there was some period of time between when Zlatko was exiled here, and when…?”

“When we killed him,” the Jerry confirmed, looking sad. “His experiments were becoming more and more cruel – you never knew what you were going to lose next – and by that time he’d made so many of us that it was easy to overtake him.”

“It couldn’t have been easy,” North said, “But you all did the right thing.”

“I’ve registered your ship in the Altean databases, so if anyone else comes this way, you should be identified as being friendly,” Luther said. “Is there any other aid you need from us? Repairs, supplies…”

“There is one thing,” the Jerry said. “Our ship is supposed to have wormholing capabilities, but they seem to have been disabled, probably during this ‘exile’ you mentioned. If that could be reversed, we’d be most grateful.”

“There should be someone from the Blade of Marmora – defectors of the Galra Empire – who can do that for you,” North said. “I’ll contact them and explain the situation.”

“Thank you.”

As the Jerry left to return to his spacecraft, Connor and Alice entered the bridge. “I’m sorry,” Connor apologized, seeming out-of-breath. “I tried to keep her out of here for longer, but she just doesn’t get as into things as –“ He blinked back tears as he sat down in his chair.

“You did fine, Connor,” Luther said. He knelt down and opened his arms, intending to give Alice a hug, but she refused, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Why wasn’t I allowed to go and help with the other paladins?”

“…What?”  _ That doesn’t make any sense. We have all five of the paladins, and Alice isn’t one of them. Besides, she’s too young. _

“Chloe and Lucy  _ told  _ me that I get to be paladin of the black lion,” Alice said, as if it was obvious.

Luther turned to Joshua, hoping he could give some sort of an explanation, because Luther had no idea who those people even  _ were _ .

“Markus, you actually met them… you should explain,” Joshua said.

“Chloe and Lucy are the guardians of the black lion,” Markus explained. “They came to me in… a dream? Of sorts? I’m not really sure. I only went to sleep after the princess came and informed me that they’d talked to her. In my dream, there were a series of tests, and at the end they told me I was the paladin of the black lion. Based on how the tests were structured, that meant Connor had to be paladin of the blue lion, since it’s the only one whose paladin we didn’t already know.”

“What kind of tests?” Luther asked immediately. If  _ anyone  _ tried to hurt his daughter…

“I don’t think her tests were anything like mine,” Markus said. “They were more like playing, right, Princess?”

“Yeah! They said that the games we played would help me get to know my other paladins,” Alice said.

“So there’s another set of paladins somewhere that we need to find,” Luther said.

“We could try contacting them,” Joshua suggested. “When someone has a bond with one of the lions, their quintessence can be temporarily brought to their lion’s astral plane -- similar to what it sounds like might have gone on with the black paladins’ tests. Based on what I’ve read, it should, theoretically, be possible to call out to the quintessence of anyone else who the lion has also chosen, summoning them to the astral plane”

Luther nodded. He trusted Joshua with this – after all, he’d been the one to carry out Elijah’s instructions at the end of the war, while Kara and Luther were still grieving. “That sounds like the best plan.”

“I’ll do it,” North said. “I feel like I have a strong bond with my lion. Once we’re done with this meeting, I’ll contact the Blade, and then I can do this.”

“Talk to me first, when you’re ready,” Joshua said. “It sounds simple, but I want to make sure you have all the information we know about it before you go into it.”

“While you’re waiting for her, could you send a message to Altea informing them of today’s events? I have something I need to show Alice,” Luther said.

“What is it?” Alice asked eagerly.

“Something very special.”


	10. The Legend Begins

Cole blinked, feeling incredibly tired, but it felt like he was being… pulled awake, somehow? Once he managed to get his eyes to stay open, he took in the dusty red nebula above him.  _ What the fuck? What happened to the ceiling?  _ He stood up quickly, his eyes darting around as they took in the rest of his surroundings.  _ Good, there’s ground… and I can breathe. _

Then he heard several questioning words from behind him. Turning around, he saw a person – no, wait,  _ why is their skin  _ purple  _ what the fuck?  _ They said something again, clearly some sort of words, but he didn’t understand,  _ couldn’t  _ understand –

A roar broke through his thoughts. The other person apparently heard it too, because they stopped talking. Tensing his muscles, he turned around to see a lion, just like the one in the cave, but red instead of blue. Still not very comforting.

The other person walked up next to him and started talking very slowly, but the only sounds that made any  _ sense  _ to him sounded oddly like “Connor”.

“Don’t you  _ fucking  _ dare say his name!”

Then the person switched to a sympathetic tone, and reached their arm out.  _ Fuck no.  _ He flinched away. The person gave up trying to touch him, but still  _ kept talking _ .  _ Can you just be fucking quiet for two seconds?! _

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck,” he said quietly to himself as he wandered in a circle,  _ trying  _ to calm himself down.  _ I wish I had someone here with me, someone who could make this whole thing make sense… like Damian… _

He felt a tug, then, like an invisible string that would somehow take him away from this place.  _ Yes, please… I want to get out of here… _

The other person gave a shout as that tug grew stronger, and everything faded away…

* * *

“Come on, Cole… please wake up… you know there’s no way for us to call for help down here, and no one knows how to deal with this,” Emma said pleadingly.

Cole yawned, feeling more tired than  _ before  _ he’d laid down to sleep. “Gimme five more minutes,  _ please _ .”

“Five more minutes?  _ Really _ ?” Emma asked. “Do you know how long you’ve been asleep for?”

Cole shook his head.

“Long enough that we were all really worried about you. Especially Damian… you should go see them. I think it would really help.”

“Okay.”  _ Maybe if I explained this whole thing to them, it would actually make sense. _

He left the little area of the lion’s belly that he’d claimed for his own, and walked over to where he knew Damian had spent the night. Emily was with them, and she caught his gaze first.

“Cole?” she asked, getting up from Damian’s side.

Damian glanced up suddenly, their eyes widening. “Cole!”

“Why are you looking at me like I was dead or something?” Cole asked, noticing but not caring as Emily slipped away.

“I mean, when we couldn’t wake you up, we weren’t exactly sure  _ what  _ was going on, so…” Damian’s voice sounded shaky.

“Damian? What’s wrong?”

“I had a panic attack. Emily helped me, but I still feel… kinda weird after it.”

Cole nodded. That made sense… it was like how he felt during sensory overload. “Would telling you about some really weird shit as a distraction be, like, helpful?”

“Yeah, maybe. If I can hear your voice, then maybe I can convince my brain that nothing’s happened to you, that I still have the chance to –“ They stopped talking abruptly.

“You still have the chance to what?”

They shook their head. “Nevermind. What was that weird shit you were going to tell me?”

“Well, while I was unconscious or whatever, I had this weird – dream, I guess? I dunno, I don’t usually feel like I didn’t sleep at all after dreaming. Anyway, so there was this – ugh, I’m bad at this. But, like, the sky looked like a star nebula, a red one. And then a lion showed up, like the one we’re in, but red. And there was this person – I dunno, like a purple alien or something? Like you’d see on a TV show. The alien was trying to talk to me, but I couldn’t understand anything because obviously I don’t know alien languages.”

“That’s it?”

“Yeah. That’s it.”

“That sounds like the weirdest dream ever… have you ever thought that this lion might actually be, like, alien technology or something before?” Damian asked.

Cole shook his head. “No…”

“And you said you still feel really tired.”

“Yeah.”  _ What does that have to do with anything? _

“Maybe aliens can actually take people from their bodies, and this  _ is  _ a piece of alien technology?”

“That is an absolute mindfuck.”

The two looked at each other before they burst out laughing. “There’s no way that’s true,” Damian said, “But it was a good distraction for my brain.”

“Good.” Cole yawned again. “But it didn’t help the fact that I’m still tired.”

“Sleep with me?”

_ What? I mean… I’ve thought about it… but… _

“Wait, no not like that! Definitely not like that! What I meant was, like, stay here and sleep, so that I can check every once in a while and make sure you can still wake up?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I can do that. I’ll stay.”

* * *

Alice walked with her father until they reached a door to a room she’d never been inside before. Inside, it was dark, and empty, except for some sort of small platform in the middle of the room. “There’s nothing in here.”

“Press your hand here,” her father said, pointing to a spot on the wall, next to the door.

“Okay,” she said. The wall glowed blue for a moment, around the outline of her hand. She pulled it back, and then the room started to transform. The ceiling became a pale blue, with fluffy white clouds, and the floor became bright green grass with pink juniberry flowers. It looked like something out of a picture book.

“Is this Princess Alice?”

On the platform stood a woman in a flowing yellow dress. Her hair was done in braids, and a silver necklace with a pendant that looked like the Voltron symbol sat against her dark brown skin.

“Yes. This is,” Alice’s father said.

The woman curtseyed with a smile. The wrinkles on her face reached all the way to the pale yellow markings under her eyes.

“Who are you?” Alice asked, stepping closer.

“My name is Amanda. I was the previous paladin of the yellow lion… and your grandmother.”

Alice glanced back at her father, who nodded. “She’s my mother, Alice.”

“But…” Alice turned back to her grandmother. “But you’re dead. So how are you here?”

“Come sit down,” her grandmother said, “And I’ll tell you.” She knelt down before sitting on the edge of the platform.

Alice sat down next to her, smoothing out her dress after doing so.

“I didn’t grow up in the capital, like you did,” her grandmother began. “I lived in a small village, where you could see the sky forever and juniberry flowers grew everywhere in spring.”

“Places like that… don’t just exist in books?”

Her grandmother shook her head. “No. Once you’ve gone far enough outside the city, you start to see places that look more and more like this. Have you never gotten to go there?”

“No. I’ve only ever been in the city… and to a Balmera, once… and now we’re going to Earth. No one from another planet has been to Earth before.”

“It’s scary, going somewhere you’ve never been before. I remember when I went to the capital, for the first time… I’d never left my village, before that.”

“How did you… not be scared?”

“I had a friend with me. We were both still nervous, but having each other helped. He was a few years younger than me, but incredibly smart, so we did our lessons together. One day, there was a big storm, and many of the buildings in our village were damaged. That’s when the yellow lion and his paladin came. The lion’s paladin was very old and ready to retire to a quiet life… and the lion chose me as his new paladin.”

“I’m going to be a paladin, too,” Alice said. “The black lion’s guardians told me. But not until I grow up – they chose someone else to be their paladin before me.” She looked up, and noticed that her father had left the room. “Father and mother wouldn’t let me fly yet, anyway.”

“So the yellow lion has chosen a paladin, then?”

“Yes. His name is Si, and he’d never left his home before, either. He’s really nice. One time I saw him helping Connor – that’s the blue lion’s paladin – when he was sad about something.”

“That’s good. Hopefully he’ll be able to comfort the lion – I’m sure he’s still sad about losing me.”

Alice thought for a moment. “Do you think that’s why the lions chose two sets of paladins at the same time? So that maybe they wouldn’t be so sad about losing them?”

“Maybe. But even – even when you have other people around you, who you love and who love you – even if you lose one of them, you can still feel sad about it.”

“Who else did you have who loved you?”

Her grandmother smiled. “Well, after the yellow lion chose me, the queen of Altea invited me to the capital.”

“So you met my mother?”

Her grandmother chuckled. “Oh, no. She wasn’t born yet. The queen then would’ve been – your other grandmother.”

“Oh.”

“She also allowed me to bring one other person with me to the palace, so I chose Elijah – my friend. The queen became a good friend of ours as well. I started learning to fly with the pilots, while Elijah was allowed to help the Royal Engineer in the castle.”

“The Royal Engineer – you mean, Joshua’s grandfather?”

“Yes. He became a friend, as well. Eventually, Elijah learned so much that he realized he could build this.” She gestured towards the platform under them. “We realized that it was possible for a lion to carry their paladin’s quintessence within them, which meant that if we could get it  _ out  _ of the lion, we could put it in something else. That’s how you’re able to talk to me today.”

Alice’s father entered the room again, temporarily breaking the illusion of the Altean countryside. “Alice, it’s almost time to eat.”

“Aww,” she said, pouting. “Can’t we talk for a  _ little  _ longer?”

“I’ll still be here later,” her grandmother said. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“Okay, fine.” She wrapped her arms around her grandmother in a hug. “I love you.”

“I love you, too, Alice,” she said, hugging her back. Then she let go. “You should eat, now.”

“Okay. I’ll see you later!” Alice followed her father out of the room and into the hallway. Under the bright lights, she realized that she saw tears on his face. “Father? Were you crying?”

“Yes,” he said.

“Why? You know the Ancients are always watching us… and your mother can do even more than watch, she can talk to you!”

“I know. Being able to talk to her is about the only thing that stayed the same, at the end of the war. Alice –“ he stopped walking. “—there are so many things in the world that seem normal to you because they’re all you’ve ever known. But many of those things used to be different, when I was your age.”

“But they changed… because of the war?”

“Yes. They did. And sometimes… I still miss the way things were.”

“I love you.”

He smiled down at her. “I love you too.”

* * *

Connor sat down at the table for another supper of green food goo, which was apparently what Alteans ate when they went on trips into space. He felt exhausted, even though he’d done nothing but stare at a picture that should’ve been long-destroyed by now. He didn’t even cry about it anymore – he didn’t feel much of anything when he looked at it, and that was the thing that scared him the most.

“I made contact with the other red paladin,” North said as she entered, taking her seat at the table. “He’s an Earthling as well, so we had a bit of a language barrier and I don’t know much about him.”

“I suppose I could try next,” Joshua offered.

“Well, there is one thing I know – Connor? You have a son, right?”

“Yes,” Connor said, trying to remember if he’d mentioned Cole to her – or maybe Markus or someone had said something, trying to explain why Connor was… like this.

“The other red paladin is your splitting image – I’m guessing that’s him.”

Connor stared at her, eyes wide.  _ Maybe she could…  _ Then he shook his head, remembering the language barrier she mentioned.

“There is one thing he kept saying, that I assume has some meaning to you: ‘Fuck’.”

Immediately, Luther, Joshua, and Markus all reached toward Alice, trying to cover her ears.

“I assume it’s something not considered appropriate for children,” Si said in a very matter-of-fact way.

That was what received Connor’s one little smile, his one little ray of hope, for the day.


End file.
